“What are you talking about? Fomorian genes aren’t carried by females.”
The council exchanged glances, and then Hartwood continued. “That’s what the Nightbloods have led the other supernatural races to believe. In truth, Nightbloods react differently to the fomorian influence. We discovered the effect the hard way, and it’s been a closely guarded secret ever since.” He looked down at me pointedly.
Karishma sat up straighter with a surprised blink.
Hartwood pressed his lips together. “Nightblood females showed evidence of a mutated version of the gene, one which caused them to go insane.” He paused briefly. “But not until they’d passed the insanity to their offspring. We had no choice but to write the law that called for testing. But to hide the truth, we claimed we tested for all outside influences.”
“You tested for the mutation?”
“But you tested only the females …” Karishma was staring at him in horror. “You tested them and eliminated the ones who carried the mutation.”
“We thought we’d wiped out the taint. We believed we’d cut the head off the snake by removing all the affected females from the Nightblood gene pool. Until you.”
Karishma looked shocked. “But what of the recent developments at the Academy?” she asked. “What about Indigo?”
Indigo? My cousin. “What’s happened to Indigo?”
Hartwood was glaring at Karishma. “Indigo Justice does not carry a mutation. Her circumstances are different and not relevant to these proceedings.”
I stared from Hartwood to Karishma. “Wait, what are you saying?”
Hartwood cleared his throat. “Your tests show you carry the mutation. More than that, you also carry a daemonic gene and something else we were unable to identify.” He glanced at my gramps. “We can only conclude that you weren’t the first female in your family to be afflicted.”
I was afflicted? He made it sound so … dirty. “You think my mother carries the mutation too?”
Gramps closed his eyes briefly.
“It would seem so,” Hartwood continued. “Which would suggest that your bloodline has been compromised for some time, and efforts have been made to hide it. You have both the mutated fomorian gene and daemonic ancestry.”
“Wait, so my father—”
“No, no,” Hartwood cut in. “It’s impossible for your father to be fomorian. The taint on our world was sown centuries ago. There are no longer any fomorians on this side of the mist, and daemons are restricted and registered. We believe the unidentified aspect of your genealogy relates to your father. Unfortunately, your mother is the only one who could shed light on that, and she, bless her soul, is unable to do so.”
“Yes, yes,” Faraday cut in, his eyes gleaming. “But you have the mutation. You understand what it means for you?”
My mind was scrambling to keep up with all the information and what it meant. The fact that I was a cocktail of breeds and the fact that they still had no clue who my father was, and finally, the fact … Oh, shit.
The reason for his glee hit me hard. “Are you saying I’m going to go insane?”
The knowledge should have flooded me with fear, but inside, a bubble of mirth bloomed in my chest, surged up my throat, and erupted from my mouth in a bark of laughter. Was this the beginning of my madness? Was it starting now?
“Miss Justice,” Hartwood continued. “Do you understand the gravity of this situation?”
“Oh, I understand the situation, but what I don’t understand is why you’re bothering to tell me. You’re going to execute me anyway.”
Faraday’s lips curved in a shark-like grin. “Who said anything about execution?”
Chapter Two
Gramps’s shoulders slumped in relief, and Karishma frowned in confusion. She had no idea what was coming. Her pen moved furiously across the page as she recorded the proceedings.
“Faraday, please,” Carmichael snapped.
“Of course, speaker,” Faraday sneered.
Carmichael’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t take the bait. “Kat, we’ve discussed the situation, and we have decided to give you a choice. Work for us outside of the regular Nightwatch remit or be privately executed.”
I glanced at Gramps, who was frowning so hard he looked like he was about to leap out of his chair and hit someone.
“Your Demonica gene can work to your advantage,” Hartwood explained. “As you’re aware, even though Demonica residents can survive on the mortal plane, supernaturals without a Demonica gene cannot survive in Demonica.”
“Demonica 101, yes, I know that, but how does this relate to me?”
Faraday leaned forward. “We want you to go into Demonica and retrieve an artifact for us.”
“Me? Why can’t you just send one of the daemons you have working for the Watch to retrieve it?”
Hartwood blinked in surprise. “We do not employ daemons.”
I arched a brow. “Really?”
Carmichael cleared his throat. “I believe Miss Justice may have come in contact with one of the few daemons in our employ.”
“Yep, so why not send an actual Nightwatch daemon to do your bidding?”
“Because they aren’t one of us,” Faraday sneered.
So, they could be used to work for the Watch, but not for this. Riiight. I wondered how Kris would feel about that.
“It has to be you,” Faraday said.
There was no arguing with that tone. But me, I was feeling a little argumentative right now. Because hell, what they were asking had my bowels threatening to turn to jelly. “You want me to enter another dimension, one with daemons in it, and steal something from them? So, you are planning an execution, you just don’t want to get your hands dirty.”
“No.” Hartwell looked uncomfortable. “We have every confidence in you. And it’s not strictly stealing if you’re retrieving something they took from us a long time ago.”
“A book,” Carmichael said. “It was taken centuries ago during the fomorian war. We were distracted, focused on fighting the fomorian threat at the time.”
I wasn’t here for a history lesson. “Yes, I know all this. Demonica helped in the war, which is why we have a Unity Treaty.”
“Indeed. But they took something too. A book. The Incanta Imagica.”
Karishma sucked in a breath. “I thought the book burned in the fires of 1706.”
“That was the official story,” Faraday drawled. “But it was stolen.”
Stolen, taken, whatever, but … “How can you be sure it’s in Demonica?”
“We have sources who tell us that it’s being kept in the archives in the central province of Demonica.”
“I thought you couldn’t send anyone into Demonica—”
“Enough!” Faraday snapped, eyes blazing. “Do you accept the deal or not? Service to a higher cause or death.”
“Well, that’s hardly a fair choice.”
“Who said anything about fair?”
God, I wanted to punch his face in. “And what happens if I get caught?”
“Then you thank us for allowing you to live a little longer than you would have,” Faraday said.
Bastard.
Gramps was shaking his head, his eyes defiant. He looked to Faraday, his mouth working desperately to speak. It was painful to see him so helpless.
Fuck it. “I’ll do it. I’ll go to Demonica and find your damn book.”
* * *
Gramps was led from the room as soon as the words were out of my mouth. He didn’t physically resist the two enforcers, but the set of his jaw and his blazing eyes told me he was pissed as fuck. I took a step to intercept the enforcers leading him away, but one of them shoved me with the palm of his hand.
“Seriously?” I glared at Faraday. “I don’t get to hug my own grandfather goodbye?”
Faraday smirked. “Your grandfather will be released once we have the book, and after the Unity ceremony next month. That is also your deadline. The book must be with us before the Unity
ceremony, or the deal is off, and both you and your gramps will be put to death.”
Gramps craned his neck and locked gazes with me before he was dragged from the room. Rage flooded me at seeing him treated so roughly and so callously. Some choice curses rose to my lips, ones I wanted to fling at Faraday like lethal knives, but I clamped my mouth shut and swallowed them.
This was not the time to test the waters. Gramps and I had been given an out, and we needed to use it, but Karishma was nudging me with her eyes, her frown reminding me there was more that I needed to reveal to the council.
The mule in me rose up, wanting to ignore her, but my sense of duty, the desire to preserve life, was too strong.
They needed to know about the shimmer man.
I took a deep breath. “There’s something else I have to tell you.”
Carmichael’s brows went up slightly. “Yes?”
“While I was stationed in Scorchwood, I came across the shimmer man. You might know him as the man in the hat or the shadow man?”
Carmichael looked lost, but Hartwood sat forward. “My mother would tell me stories about the shadow man. The monster who would come to take us if we misbehaved. But those were just stories.”
I shrugged. “All stories have their origins somewhere, and the shimmer man is very real. He tried to kill me. And he did succeed in killing your head weaver, Vinod.”
“Ridiculous!” Faraday scoffed.
“Let her speak,” Carmichael snapped. He looked at me. “Please, continue, Miss Justice.”
“Ever wonder how the word about my heritage got out? No? Well, you should have. It was him. He did it to force my gramps to send me somewhere safe. Somewhere like Scorchwood.”
I filled them in on the events that had unfolded at Scorchwood surrounding the shimmer man’s plan. I told them about the human sacrifices he’d made to try and break the binding between me and Tris that kept him from reaching me. But when it came to my little trip to the shade, I made a few omissions. Knowing I was a freak was one thing, knowing how much of a freak I was might tip the balance against me.
“You can see ghosts?” Hartwood looked excited. “See and hear and communicate?”
I gave him a flat look. “It’s not as exciting as it sounds. In fact, it’s downright tedious at times. But I assume that’s a side effect of my heritage.”
“I always wondered why your grandfather got you that gargoyle,” Faraday sneered. “It seems like your existence is more of a danger to us than anticipated.”
“But killing her could give this shimmer man what he wants,” Karishma said. “Who knows, he may be able to use her soul as a bridge. If we kill her, we’d be making her soul vulnerable to him. We have no idea what planes he can roam aside from the mortal one.”
Oh, she was clever, this one. Take that, motherfuckers. She shot me a smirk. That had been her ace, and she’d been waiting for me to reveal my story to use it. Shit, I should have spilled the story earlier. It could have gotten me out of the Demonica trip.
“Oh, don’t look so smug,” Faraday drawled. “We may not be able to execute you, but your gramps is guilty of breaking our most sacred law, and we are within our rights to execute him regardless of whether we’re forced to give you a reprieve.”
In other words, there was no getting out of the Demonica trip.
“You’ll remain at your post in Scorchwood,” Carmichael said.
“Yes, clever of your gramps to send you there,” Faraday said. “We almost failed to locate you. Luckily, we have an excellent new head weaver who was able to use hairs from an old hairbrush you left behind to do a locator spell.”
Karishma ducked her head.
So, they’d made her find me. She was responsible for me being here. She probably hadn’t realized what they wanted me for or what finding me would lead to. That’s why she’d come to see me in the cells.
Guilt.
Hell, couldn’t blame her for doing her job. She looked up, and I smiled and shook my head slightly, letting her know it was all right. That I forgave her.
“You’ll remain in Scorchwood,” Carmichael continued, shooting Faraday a sharp look that said shut the fuck up and let me do my speaker job. “And you’ll have official leave for council business. You can show the release to the Master there.” He frowned and looked down at a sheet of paper. “Jay Hyde … Why does that name sound so familiar?”
“The Hyde bloodline produces the most shadow knights,” Hartwood said. “He must be one of the Hydes the gene skipped.”
“Ah, yes. The rogue Nightblood massacre a few years back,” Carmichael said. “He was the lone survivor, wasn’t he?”
“Orion’s bloodline,” Faraday said. “Feyblood. That male sure got around in his day.”
And Cassandra, but they didn’t seem to know that. It was rare for feybloods to be Nightwatch, but Orion Winterlock had sown his wild fey oats both before and after the fomorian war. There were two bloodlines touched by his fey blood. Hyde was obviously one of the bloodlines also infected with the fomorian gene. Except Jay didn’t have it. No, he just had an actual fomorian locked in his dungeon.
Shit, no. I couldn’t tell them about that. Not until I understood it myself. Not if it would get Jay and the gang in trouble.
“You’ll head back today,” Carmichael continued. “And you’ll return with the book before the Unity ceremony in four weeks.”
A month. I had a month to pull this off. My stomach churned because I’d have to do this alone. No Henri or Tris to ground me.
But I stood tall in my sweats and bunny slippers and nodded curtly. “I’ll get it done. But I want your Sworn, you’ll pardon both me and my gramps if I do.”
Faraday’s jaw clenched in annoyance, but Carmichael’s lips twitched and his eyes twinkled. “I’ll have one drawn up and signed in a couple of hours. You’ll have it before you leave.”
Faraday looked like he wanted to spit a few curses. The bastard had probably been hoping to get the book then find an excuse to execute my gramps anyway. Me, he’d have to wait to kill, at least until the shimmer man was caught.
The shimmer man… “I’ll need access to resources to stop the shimmer man.”
Because he would be back, that much I was sure of. The binding between Tris and me may not have been broken because he’d failed to complete the ritual, but he’d find another way. He’d promised as much.
“I’ll help you,” Karishma said. “Whatever you need. I’ll come down with you and run some tests on your weaver Lark to make sure he’s free of this otherworld influence, and then he can liaise with me whenever you need. We’ll be ready for when the shimmer man makes his next move.”
“I’m sure you can send another weaver,” Faraday said.
“Of course.” Karishma shrugged. “But then you’ll have to do a Sworn for them too, and that will be another individual who knows about Scorchwood and Kat’s heritage, and who knows what else they’ll discover.”
Faraday’s jaw worked, and then he nodded. “Fine. You can go, but you’ll be back here tomorrow afternoon at the latest. The head weaver doesn’t leave headquarters for any extended period.”
“With that settled, this hearing is closed,” Carmichael said. “Miss Raj, you may remove the cuffs from Miss Justice, and please, provide her with some suitable attire for her journey home.”
Karishma hid a smile. “Of course.”
Faraday looked less than pleased at the amiable tone of the wrap-up, but he pressed his lips together and held his peace.
Fuck you, Farawanker. I gave him a close-lipped smile and the invisible finger.
* * *
Karishma waited until the other Nightbloods had left the room and then walked over to me and undid the cuffs on my wrist with a whispered word. They fell into her waiting hands.
I rubbed my wrists. “Thanks. What were they talking about when they mentioned Indigo? Is she all right?”
It had been too long since I’d seen Indie. I’d played with her, taken care of her w
hen she’d been a child. Anything to give her a reprieve from the somber, austere shadow of Baron Justice, the man who she had the misfortune to call father.
Karishma shook her head. “Indigo is fine. You need to worry about you.” She frowned and shook her head again.
“What is it?”
“That was too easy.”
“You think? They want me to go to Demonica and steal back a magical textbook. That does not sound easy to me.”
She gnawed on her bottom lip. “No, it just felt too … planned.”
I knew what she meant. “They knew what they wanted from me, and they knew how to get it. The hearing was just a formality. There was little doubt I’d say yes. Hell, what choice have I got?”
It was better than dying, and my insides were still quivering as they adjusted to the idea that hey, I might get to live after all.
“But they can’t kill you, not while this shimmer man is at large,” Karishma reminded me.
“Doesn’t matter. They have Gramps, and so they have me.”
She sighed. “It just feels off.”
“I know. But I have a month to figure out why. They gave me until the Unity ceremony.”
“Every century, like clockwork,” Karishma said. “Demonica Lords and Nightwatch Council meet to reseal the Unity pact. In private.”
“Wait, they don’t actually have a ceremony?”
“Nope. Unless they party behind closed doors.”
There was something else niggling at me, though. “Funny how they were so focused on the fomorian and Demonica gene and unbothered by the unknown aspect of my makeup …”
Give Up the Ghost: The Nightwatch Series Book 2 Page 2
