“You’re hard on her,” Jenkins observed, watching his nephew carefully.
Nolan didn’t flush, but a tightening along the line of his jaw betrayed his discomfort. “I’m worried about her… not the same thing.”
Jenkins obviously didn’t agree, but he left it alone. “We’ll let the dust settle, then make our plans.”
Chapter Forty-Two
While waiting for Gia to recover, the boys trained with Jenkins out in the freezing cold, brushing up on their skills. By the middle of December, Gia was fighting alongside of them, and by the last week of the year, she was routinely destroying them.
She wandered past the living room one morning before their usual practice and was startled to see a flash of light, followed by a curse.
"Nolan?"
He was frowning down at his hands, a small spark of numina darting haphazardly below the skin.
"I still don't know how I did it," he said quietly.
"Did what?"
"Paralyzed Jonas."
She crouched down in from of him, cupping his hands in hers. She didn't flinch when the spark jumped to skitter along her own skin. "Are you still worried about that?"
"Yes... I mean, not for the reason you think. I don't want to do it by mistake again... but I may need to do it on purpose, and I don't want to kill anyone."
Gia was silent for long enough that Nolan began to worry. "I'm not saying I WANT to hurt anyone, I just—"
She put her hand lightly over his mouth. "Nolan, shut up, I know that." She rose to her feet lightly and gestured for him to join her.
He obeyed, curious.
She put her hand back in his and looked up with a smile. "Start with only my pinkie, just in case."
It took him a moment to realize what she meant. When he did, he tried to leap backward and almost landed back on the couch. "No!"
"Nolan, you have to test it on someone. Just make sure it's my right pinkie—I need my left hand to write."
"We need you at full strength," he tried to argue.
"We need YOU at full confidence!" she snapped. "I think you'll be able to reverse it, Nolan. I trust you. Now do it!"
She thrust her hand back at him, her eyes taking on a stormy cast.
He took it gently, running the tip of his finger along the back of her pinkie and separating them from the rest.
"Ready?" he said quietly.
"Yes."
He let a single tiny spark jump onto her nail. Like an insect, it crawled along the hardened surface until it found the soft tip of her finger and buried itself in her flesh. Though he heard her make a soft noise at the sensation, her hand was steady. He followed his numina into her system, tracing down the nerve endings until he reached the base of her finger, where the ulnar nerve branched back into her ring finger.
"I feel it," he said, amazed.
"What do you feel?"
"I can feel your nerve—I just found a spot where it splits."
"Okay—now what?"
He concentrated on keeping his spark in that juncture. "I want to see if I can block your own body's electricity by keeping it there. Ready?"
"Yes."
He pushed the spark into shape and felt the electricity in the nerve beyond it die. Gia gasped.
"Do you feel it?"
"Yes—it's like my pinkie and part of my ring finger are asleep!"
"I'm going to let you go—to see if I can keep it going without touching you."
"Do it."
He slowly let go, watching her like a hawk. After a moment, she shook her hand sharply, then her head. "No, still asleep. Are you actively thinking about it?"
"No."
"How long do you want to leave it?"
"Not too long—I don't want to hurt you."
"Let's say fifteen minutes—by then, I would have feeling back if it was a fluke."
The fifteen minutes were torture for Nolan. He kept sneaking glances at her hands, often enough that she shoved her hands under her on the couch and glared at him until he looked away.
Finally, the time was up. He took her hand again and traced his numina back to that nerve, still sitting dead.
"Ready?"
"Yes!"
He grunted at her clear impatience. "I have to be careful that I don't take your natural electricity with it!"
"You can do this, Nolan."
Her smile gave him enough confidence to try it. He focused, sternly pushing her body's own electricity back away from his own.
"Your electricity likes mine," he joked, amused by her sudden blush.
As she opened her mouth to respond, he popped his numina out of the juncture between her pinkie and ring finger, absorbing it back into himself.
"Oh! Ow!"
"Did I hurt you?"
She hissed between her teeth. "No, it's just pins and needles."
"Can you move your finger?"
She experimented, wiggling and extending all five digits on her right hand. "Yes—still tingling, but it's going away. You did it!"
He swept her into a kiss. "Thank you!"
"What is he thanking you for this time?" Pyrrhus asked as he passed by.
"He can control paralyzing someone now!" she said with a grin.
Instead of the answering smile she expected, Pyrrhus looked murderous.
"Are you insane?"
He wasn't talking to her.
He strode right past her and got into Nolan's face. "You're going to try something like that right before one of the most dangerous nights of our lives? On her?"
"Hey!"
Pyrrhus ignored her. "She's suffered enough, Nolan."
"She volunteered. I love her, Pyrrhus—I would never put her in danger!"
"Oh, really?"
"Boys." The warning tone in Gia's voice was ignored by them both.
"It was her pinkie, Pyrrhus, I'm not a complete idiot. If it means I can save one of you in the heat of battle, it was worth it, She knew the risks going in—she's a big girl."
"She's as much of an idiot as you are!"
"Alright, enough," Gia snapped finally, using a puff of wind to break them apart and send them to opposite sides of the room. "I know tensions are high—we're going into something very dangerous—but it's done! I don't want to hear another word about it from either of you. Now—kiss and make up."
She laughed at their instinctual expressions of horror.
"He's closer than a brother—"
"He's my best friend, Gia—"
"Hypothetically, gentlemen. Shake hands, then."
They laughed and did so. The apologies were implied.
"You're all terrible students," Jenkins called from the kitchen. "We were supposed to be strategizing twenty minutes ago!"
Still laughing a bit, they trailed each other into the kitchen, where Jenkins was already waiting at the table with coffee. “I’ve got it,” he announced as soon as Gia’s ponytail cleared the doorway. “We should do it on the 31st.”
“New Year’s Eve? As in, less than a week from now?” Pyrrhus coughed out, sputtering coffee down his shirt. He cursed and brushed at the stain irritably.
“No better time. Michael hosts a large New Year’s Eve party every year, and anyone who’s anyone goes.”
Jenkins spread a large piece of paper out on the kitchen table and weighed it down with tuna cans. He grabbed a marker and began to sketch as the other three took seats at the table, speaking all the while.
"Artifex’s family seat, Grappenhall, is in Greenwich, Connecticut. He's got a lot of security, obviously increased since your escape, Nolan, and very specific ways in and out. Dealing with that will be a challenge all its own, but we'll get to that. Word from Anna is that security has almost quadrupled, while security at Caer Anglia is almost nonexistent. I have to believe that the Sword is being kept at Grappenhall.”
“I agree,” Gia said, gnawing on the inside of her lip. “Even if he was trying to throw us off of the scent, Artifex would never leave the Sword completely unguarded.�
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“Knowing what I know about Michael, he’ll want to keep it as close as he can. Now, once we get inside, the floors above ground are your average mansion, good for black tie affairs and impressing important people. That’s where the party will be. It's below ground we'll need to go."
Nolan grimaced, and Jenkins caught it. "I know, I know, Nolan—that will put you and Gia at a severe disadvantage. There's nothing we can do about that. Anything important to Michael will be protected by his element. Now, I've only been underground once, but my memory is good—we'll only be in trouble if he's completely rebuilt the foundations. He has a sort of trophy room, where he keeps his most treasured possessions. The odds are the Sword will be among them. We'll try to enter as close to the northeast corner of the building as we can.”
"It seems like most of this plan is based around guesses and hopes," Pyrrhus said, balancing his chair back on two legs. "You sure we can't take a chance and do a little early surveillance?"
Jenkins smiled at him. "Pyrrhus, you've forgotten our biggest asset." He kicked out with his good leg and pulled the chair out from under Pyrrhus. Left only one chair leg to balance on, he teetered for a moment and began to fall. Jenkins' foot continued upward, catching the lip of the chair on his toes and pulling him upright before he could fall and hurt himself. Pyrrhus slammed his palms down on the table to steady himself and catch his breath as Jenkins leaned in and said softly, "The element of surprise."
Pyrrhus was shocked right into laughter. “You’ve still got it, old man.”
“I’m not senile yet, but thank you,” he said with a smile as Nolan and Gia laughed.
“Go on, Uncle Robert,” Nolan urged, eyes glued on the page.
“We need to remember Captain Selocrim,” Gia said. “She’s had possession of the Sword for over six months—she won’t give it up without a fight.”
“We’ll have to assume she’ll be guarding the Sword. I can’t imagine that Michael would have her at the party with him without the Sword, and I don’t think he’d put it in an open situation. It would be too easy for us to take advantage of.”
“I think it would be harder,” Nolan said thoughtfully.
“What would be?”
“If he has it at the party with him. Then we’ll have to count on the mood of the crowd. If they’re with us, we’ll get in and out quickly. If they’re all his people, we’ll be dead before we even reach him.”
Jenkins ran a hand over the paper on the table. “We’ll have to prepare for both eventualities and hope for the best.”
Pyrrhus groaned. “Having to plan for both means two half-assed plans instead of one solid plan. I’d like to express, again, that I think this plan is terrible. We don’t even really have a plan, more like… a loose grouping of ideas.”
“Yes!” Gia snapped. “We heard you! You protest! You’re here under duress! You don’t even want to be part of this. So stay home. We’ll let you know when we get back how it went.”
“Whoa, whoa. I never said I wanted to stay home. I just…” he sighed. “I wish we had something tighter.”
“We all do,” Nolan said. “It can’t be helped.”
“I have received an invitation, as usual,” Jenkins continued after a moment. “I will attend the party as a guest and keep in touch via text. Once we’ve made sure that the Sword is not there, we can proceed.”
“I’m sure we’ve been invited, as well,” Gia said, indicating Pyrrhus in her gesture. “Now that we’re adults, I mean. Should we all go to the party?”
“No. I’ve been there as a guest before, a long time ago. I will go.”
“That’s what I mean,” Gia persisted. “After the whole thing with Nolan’s dad, you and Artifex parted ways. He’ll be incredibly suspicious if you suddenly show up while he has the Sword in his possession. I think Pyrrhus and I should be the ‘at the party’ group. We have a ready made excuse, since we’ve told everyone we’re on vacation together now while we were really looking for Nolan.”
“She’s right,” Pyrrhus said. “Lord Artifex interrogated Gia in June, but couldn’t prove that she was helping him. He may suspect we’re on Nolan’s side, but he knows you are, Dr. Jenkins.”
Jenkins sighed, running his hands through his thinning hair. “You’re right, of course. Nolan and I will be the covert team.”
“That means Gia and I will have to go back to one of the Courts soon. We’ll want to make our appearance with the Nine Families.”
Nolan looked stricken, but Gia jumped about a foot in the air before she caught herself. “We can’t go back to my brother. It’ll have to be your father, Pyrrhus.”
“My father and I are not exactly best friends.”
“My brother is not only one of Artifex’s cronies, but he’s fickle. He could decide the night of the party to not go, and to not let us go.”
“Gia’s right,” Nolan said, still frowning. “It’ll have to be the Ignis Court.”
Chapter Forty-Three
“Lady Younger Aqua, please pass my petition on to your mother!”
“Lady Younger, bless my son!”
“¡Señora Joven del Agua, ayuda a mi familia, por favor!”
Alan scowled at the mass of Aqua pushing against the fence as they walked along the private beach.
“The Lady Younger has established hours for these things—come to the house then!” He turned to see his wife nimbly clamber over the rickety sand fence directly into the middle of the crowd.
“Leiani!”
She ignored him completely, accepting petitions written on everything from heavy vellum to one scrawled on the back of a bar coaster. She kissed a few children, conjured a spray of water for the delight of the crowd, and shook enough hands that Alan was sure her knuckles would be sore for days.
Finally, he managed to coax her back onto the private beach and drew her down toward the water, waiting until they were practically in the ocean before he spoke. “Are you insane?”
“They are our people, Alan. They live three thousand miles from Beachhead—we are nothing but an idea to them. I thought part of the reason we extended our trip was to make connections with these people?” She huffed at his stoic expression. “Look, Alan!”
Heedless of the winds whipping up along the shore, she thrust her hand into her bag and pulled out a letter covered in wax seals. “This man heard we were here and came all the way from Puerto Vallarta!”
Alan took it, but it was written entirely in Spanish. Noticing his flustered expression, she took it back and handed him another, written in large, childish letters.
“Dear Lady Yunger Aqua, my mommy says you are the prettiest lady in the world and I think she is right. Do you think you could talk to Neptoon about a little sister as pretty as you? Mommy says they might bring her a boy but boys are yucky.”
Alan chuckled in spite of himself, and Leiani’s eyes lit up.
“Alan, do you see? We need to be accessible to the people!”
When she spoke of these common people, her entire face glowed, and she softened in a way Alan hadn’t seen since their marriage. He took her hand in his.
“You are determined to do this?”
“I love my mother very much,” she said averting her eyes and looking out over the Pacific Ocean, “but I don’t always agree with her methods. She’s shut herself away at Beachhead and ignored her people for years—as long as I can remember. I never wanted to be that Lady.”
“You aren’t.”
“I know that our marriage hasn’t started off so well, Alan, but I wanted more from my husband than a sperm donor. Conway… my father...” she trailed off, unsure of what she really wanted to say.
“I know that Conway was not a good father, even for the short time before he died,” Alan admitted, tucking her hand into the crook of his elbow. “And I know he wasn’t a good husband to your mother. Her… liason… with Azar started as purely reactionary, but I truly believe that she loves him, and he loves her.”
“That’s exactly m
y point! My mother’s love for Azar has blinded her to what her people need! They’re beginning to look to me for answers instead—I’m not encouraging it, but it’s happening. I want…I want…” She huffed in exasperation. “Why can’t I say what I mean?”
Noticing that they were almost back to the house, Alan stopped walking and turned to face her. “Leiani, I could never just be a sperm donor. I was raised from the cradle to be your partner in every way, including politically and … parentally.”
“I want our rule to be one of change, Alan. Is that something you are willing to support me in?”
He picked up her hand again and kissed it right above her wedding ring. “I was always willing to support you, and I still am.”
“I’m glad we took the time to come here, Alan, but…”
And with that, the moment was gone.
“You want to go back to Nolan?”
She cringed at the bitterness of his tone. “No! I want to go home to our mothers, to Beachhead! Five months is a long time to be away from the Court, and you know that.”
“I know, I know!” He turned on his heel and waded into the ocean, completely impervious to the cold.
She waited.
When he came back, he was still visibly irritated, but the rage had faded from his eyes. “I know we have to go back,” he said quietly. “I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Nolan.”
“Oh, Alan, that’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” He began to pace. “Even if our marriage was on perfect terms, I’d still be afraid. Nolan is going to undo everything. He’s going to bring it down on our heads, and I don’t know if we’ll survive it.”
“You and I?”
“The numen as a race!” he snapped. “Us included! You want this utopia, this Eden where you can gather the Aqua in your arms and heal all of their hurts? How can we accomplish that when we’re fighting a civil war?”
She didn’t have an answer—but then again, Alan hadn’t expected one.
Chapter Forty-Four
The final morning of the year.
Nolan fought back a yawn as he stood on the back porch of his home, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his coat. The sky was still dark, only a small smudge of purple indicating where the sun would rise in a little more than two hours’ time. He wished for a moment that Pyrrhus could take the chill out of the air just a bit—New England winter was unforgiving. Instead, he watched as Pyrrhus slammed the trunk of the car shut and took his time coming back to the house.
The Complete Chosen Trilogy (The Chosen Book 0) Page 36
