“I don’t care, it sounds delicious. I’m doin’ it.”
As Allie reached for the cheese dip, Graham cleared his throat and shifted nervously.
Allie gave him her best “you-can-do-it” smile and sat back, letting him take his time to get to the reason they were all there.
“How about a toast?” Graham said.
“Go for it, little dude.” Aidan gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“I know we’ve all been preoccupied with our own shit lately. We’re all dealing with issues. We all miss Quinn and everything is just messed up these days. But I love you guys and I miss this.” He raised his beer for a toast.
“Here, here,” Aidan said.
“And I’m gay, by the way. But I’m pretty sure none of you have a problem with that, so … let’s drink to that.” Graham smiled and tapped his beer bottle with Aidan’s.
“Cheers to that.” Allie beamed at him, knowing it was a huge relief to have that behind him now.
“He would be proud of you,” Sasha said softly.
“I miss my brother.” Graham nodded, staring at the label on his bottle. “I feel like … making it official like that means I’m moving on without him.”
“He wouldn’t want any of us to stop living,” Allie said. “No matter what happens, no matter where he is, Quinn wants us to go on living. To be happy. We can do that and not feel guilty because we are doing everything we can to bring him home.”
“Well said.” Aidan lifted his bottle and took a drink.
Allie’s mind swirled with colors and images as she fell into a vision. The night was dark and moonless. She couldn’t see her own feet as she stumbled along the steep path leading down to the beach. The only sound that reached her ears was the crunching of the fall leaves beneath her feet and the occasional hoot of an owl in the trees. She felt a complete absence of fear this time. Nothing here could hurt her. Nothing could scare her because it was just Allie and the darkness.
It was boring. She could smell the fires, but saw no flames. It was like the cold blackness of the void she experienced in the final moments of her Awakening. But this time all her other senses were alive.
Focus on the important details and discard the rest.…
“Clearly sight isn’t important tonight,” she whispered softly into the darkness. “Why can’t there ever be a flashing neon sign that just says, ‘Allie, your vision means you’ll eat chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.’”
As she trudged ahead, she tried to focus on each sense individually. The night air was crisp and cold—like the night before the first snowfall. If she could see, she knew her breath would come out in a steady puff of white fog. She listened to the waves lapping at the shore, but something was off. “I’m nowhere near Kelleys Island.”
She turned toward the lake with a frown. Her sense of direction was completely skewed. Allie gazed up at the distant stars, looking for the familiar constellations and the North star, hoping to get a better sense of where she was. With her head tilted to the sky, Allie turned until the world righted, and she faced north.
She was somewhere just to the south of Niagara or Buffalo. Wherever she was, it was in the middle of freaking nowhere. Allie stepped onto a well-worn path along the beach––the faint light of the stars illuminating the way. She followed the path behind the little cottage where it turned sharply to rise along the sloped dunes to the apple orchard secreted away in the middle of the huge forest. A big red barn sat nestled among the apple trees. The cloying scent of the fruit threatened to make her nauseous. She’d spent so much time in the orchard lately she wasn’t sure she could ever stomach the sight of an apple again.
She could sense the fires and chaos just out of reach beyond the shadows. She wasn’t bothered by the horrors of being right in the thick of it anymore. Without the fear, she could focus and examine the mundane details carefully. This vision was important. She didn’t know how. She still didn’t know what any of it meant, but it was time she figured out what her gift was trying to tell her.
As she continued along the path across the orchard and through the woods again, Allie made her way back into the clearing, near the gates. The blood red moon burst from behind the clouds and flooded the sloping lawn with light. A rambling old mansion rested atop a distant hill with miles of green lawns and gardens surrounding it. Allie could feel the heat of the fires drawing in closer. She couldn’t see the flames, but she could smell the smoke. As she approached the house, her vision blurred and she saw red. Everything was red. The green lawn was bathed in blood and her vision blurred and cleared until she was back among her friends beside the bonfire.
You okay? What was that? Aidan asked.
A vision. I’ve never had a waking one quite that long before. It’s usually over pretty quickly and it never makes much sense.
Something terrible would happen at that house. She just didn’t know what it could possibly be.
Any idea what this one means?
No idea.
You’ve never actually been there, have you?
Where? You recognized the place?
Yeah, that was Imogen and Lucien’s house up near Buffalo.
Her visions had officially struck way too close to home now.
~~~
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
“Allie, I just don’t think there’s enough to go on,” Liam said.
“I know. I’m sorry. I just wish this all wasn’t so hard to decipher.” Allie paced the length of her room. All she could really tell him was that she had a bad feeling something terrible was going to happen at Imogen and Lucien’s house at some point in the nondescript future. He was right. There was nothing she could do to prepare for such a vague possibility from the visions and dreams she didn’t fully understand yet. There was something she was missing. Some small piece of the puzzle she hadn’t figured out yet.
“Allie, don’t apologize. You are young and you’re human. We are not perfect, nor infallible. All you can do is to keep doing what you’ve been doing. You’re making so much progress, little one. I’m proud of you. You’re handling your dreams all on your own now.”
“Thanks, Liam.” But Allie had an overwhelming sense of urgency about these dreams. She didn’t figure it out soon enough last year when she first started dreaming of the caves. She never wanted to make that mistake again. The next time she dreamed of the orchard, she had to look for the details she was missing.
~~~
The stench of overripe apples made Allie gag.
God I hate apples. She could feel the cool breeze wash across her face and the grass tickling her cheek where she lay in the orchard. After what felt like hours of searching, she'd come up with nothing.
“Wake up, we have work to do,” a familiar voice said. “You need my help this time.”
“No, that can’t be right,” Allie muttered.
“Up!”
“So much nope. I’m going to lay here, pretending I haven’t lost my mind.”
“Get. Up.”
Allie cracked her eyes opened and closed them again quickly. “Jeez. I’m talking to myself now. Literally, talking to myself.”
“Come on, I figured it out and there isn't much time left now. You have to put your face on the game, sister.”
“I think you mean ‘put my game face on.’” Allie groaned as she reluctantly got to her feet.
“That’s what I said.”
“How can my subconscious gift be such a dork?” Allie stared at the identical version of herself looking blankly back at her. “Please tell me my hair doesn’t look like that?”
“Shut up and let’s do this,” gift-Allie said. Her face was so serious and pale, the real Allie knew this was not going to be good. After weeks of dreaming about this place, something significant might finally happen now.
“Show me.”
“Come on. And pay attention. We only get to do this once.”
“I can’t be that bossy,” Allie muttered as she followed he
rself through the orchard and along the well-worn path to the big house on the hill.
“Come on, keep up.”
“I’m coming.” Allie hurried to match her gift’s faster stride. Clearly this was important.
Or clearly, I have finally cracked and I’m on my way to the loony bin.
“No jokes, funny girl. This is serious. Pay attention.”
“What are you, a mind reader?” Allie snapped.
The withering glare she gave herself could have cut glass.
“Right, that was totally dumb. Don’t tell anyone I said that. So what are we looking for?”
“We’re eavesdropping.” Gift-Allie sank into a crouch as they approached the back of the house. She slipped up to the patio door and crept inside.
Allie heard familiar voices coming from the living room.
“Can they actually see us? Couldn’t we just walk in and take a seat and see what’s up?”
“Oh, right.” The shock on gift-Allie’s face was rather insulting.
“Oh come on, let’s just do this.” Allie stood and walked across the empty kitchen to the living room at the front of the house where Gregg and Naeemah sat in conference with Imogen, Lucien, Aide, and Hélène. Allie and her gift sat on the couch beside Naeemah and watched.
“Pay attention.”
“I will if you’ll shut up,” Allie hissed.
“What can we do, Gregg?” Aide sighed in frustration. “It’s been eight months.”
“We know exactly where he is now, and we know what they intend to do with him. But we can’t get close enough to make a move.” Gregg’s frustration was evident in his tone.
“Oooh, this is about Quinn,” Allie said. “It’s about time they come up with a plan.”
“Shhh!” Gift-Allie elbowed her.
“Why can’t we just set up a Senate raid on Soma?” Hélène asked. “We have all the right connections and I can’t stomach the thought of my little brother with that vile woman for one more second.”
“Livia?” Allie asked. “Have the found her?”
“Shhh!”
“Right, quiet.”
“The Senate is in Soma’s pocket,” Gregg said. “We’d never get approval for a raid.”
“So we are at an impasse?” Aide asked. “Is there nothing we can do to get Quinn out of there?”
“We aren’t asking the right questions.” Gregg frowned into his tumbler of bourbon.
“Can’t we just offer to buy him back?” Naeemah asked. “I know they probably won’t agree, but it’s worth a shot.”
“That’s what I said.” Allie thought it was a good idea, but Naeemah was probably right—they’d never go for it. Soma wouldn’t want an eyewitness out of their control and the Senate wouldn’t want someone who could corroborate the existence of the slave market, nor their involvement in it.
“Soma will not accept a bid from anyone they haven’t vetted first,” Aide said. “What do we know of Livia’s recent activity?” Aide pulled his notes in front of him. “Let’s go over it all again.”
Allie jumped up to hang over his shoulder to see the dossier on Livia. It wasn’t much. Just a few grainy pictures of her speaking with a young Hispanic girl at a coffee cart on a busy city street corner. And Aide's handwritten notes.
“She isn’t registered with the Senate,” Imogen said. “No one’s ever heard of her outside of Soma. She heads the company but she is an enigma, rarely showing her face publicly. She has executives who handle everything for her. I just can’t imagine how she’s made it over two centuries as an unknown.”
“She is in deep with the Coalition,” Lucien added. “She sits high among the Margrave as a trusted servant to the current Marches, but others on the Margrave’s council don’t seem to know of her. She spends much of her time in Atlanta at Soma’s headquarters in Sterling Tower. Her movements suggest she comes and goes as she pleases, but she is impossible to track. We can’t seem to get close no matter what we do.”
“And until we find her, we have no hope of rescuing Quinn,” Imogen said.
“We must draw her out.” Gregg drained the last of the bourbon from his glass.
“How?” Naeemah asked.
“Give her what she wants—or make her think she can take what she wants by force.”
“Me. He’s talking about me,” Allie realized.
“Shhh!”
“What? It’s a great plan. I’m awesome bait.”
“If we knew what she wanted, that might work,” Aide said.
“Aye, but I do know what she wants.”
“How do you know?” Hélène asked. “We’ve been digging for months and found nothing.”
“She wants the same thing she wanted last summer. It’s what drew her out the first time. We’ll just make it seem as if we’ve gotten sloppy and give her the opportunity again.”
“No,” Naeemah snarled.
“Nae, I wouldn’t even consider it if we had another prospect, but we’re running out of time.”
“What are we missing?” Lucien frowned at their heated exchange.
“What she wants more than anything is Allie,” Gregg said.
“Allie?” Imogen gasped. “But why?”
“There is more to Allie’s past than we first assumed. But it’s up to her to tell everyone when she is ready,” Gregg said. “Livia risked her cover when she came to inspect Allie and Quinn—and for someone of such high rank, it was more than a cursory interest that brought her out. We just need to give her another opportunity to do the same—while keeping our Allie perfectly safe,” he added before Naeemah could protest. “It has to happen, Nae. It’s the best option we have to reach Quinn—before it’s too late. It is worth the risk now while we have the time to carefully plan and act. To wait any longer, we run the risk of acting desperately.”
“We will not use her as bait, Greggory McBrien!”
“I’m afraid we have to, love.”
“I’m cool with that,” Allie said. “If it helps bring Quinn home.”
“This isn’t why we’re here, Allie,” her gift said. “Keep watching.”
“We’ve got company, Gregg.” Aide stood to peek through the blinds into the darkness.
“What? How? The gate is impossible to breach without a code.” Lucien leapt to his feet.
“How many?” Naeemah asked, rising to join the others.
“Mortals. Six of them. Immortals too. They're swarming the lawn and their fires burn for us already,” Aide said.
“Get to the barn!” Hélène ran to the hidden entrance that provided a means of escape through the man-made tunnels. But she wasn’t fast enough. The front door splintered and a swarm of Coalition filled the room. They had a bullet through Hélène’s chest before she could react, and a slim metal collar clasped around her throat.
“Count them!” gift-Allie demanded. “We need to know how many we’re facing.”
“I see a dozen here with eight more out on the lawn.” Allie darted away from the window just as she saw a familiar mark. The ouroboros brand. Just like the one she saw at Amrita! This wasn’t just the Coalition. This was Soma, which had to mean Livia was behind this.
“Go!” Hélène turned to her husband. “Now! Gen, please get him out of here!”
Imogen and Gregg pulled Aide away from his wife and retreated farther into the house to escape through the back.
Allie ran after them, watching as Naeemah and Gregg split up. Panic seized her chest.
“Stay calm. This isn’t happening,” her gift reminded her. “At least not yet.”
“This is our chance to see everything and stop it,” Allie said in determination. “Pick out the most important information and discard the rest.”
“Exactly,” gift-Allie agreed.
Allie headed for the beach. She knew from all her wandering around that they could escape down the cliffs to the beach and circle around and back up the steep path to the orchard and the barn where they would be better equipped to fight. They would regroup ther
e to fight for Hélène, but they had little choice but to leave her behind for the moment.
“They need help,” Allie said. “If they had more numbers, they could handle this.”
“It’s more than that,” her gift said. “There is something we aren’t seeing. Some detail has us blind. Keep watching. We don’t make any decisions until we see everything.”
“Right.” Allie jogged beside herself and down the steps to the beach below.
The eerie silence descended and Allie couldn’t even hear the waves crashing along the rocky shore. Green shadows blurred her peripheral vision and she stumbled in the unnatural darkness.
“This is weird. What aren’t we seeing?”
“I don’t know, something has us blocked.”
“What do we do?”
“Do what we can with what we’ve got and hope like hell it’s enough,” gift-Allie said.
Allie caught up to Gregg and Aide as they crouched along the path leading back up to the orchard.
“Where is Naeemah?” Allie searched but couldn’t see her anywhere.
“They’ll separate the Complements. That’s the first line of defense,” gift-Allie said.
“Right. You were paying more attention to Daniel’s lessons than I was.”
“I am you, you nitwit. You were listening.”
“Aidan’s right. I’m totally mean.”
“Shhh!”
As they made their way up to the barn, more Coalition waited for them. Fires blazed out of control in the forests around the house, and black smoke filled the sky, just like it had in all her nightmares before. This time she was back in the thick of it. But this time she had the whole picture … almost.
Gregg and Aide fought their way through the trees, with Imogen bringing up the rear, but they were completely unprepared for this attack. They weren’t even armed.
“That’s why we’re here,” gift-Allie said. “This is not going to happen.”
“If we have anything to do with it, it certainly won’t,” Allie agreed with herself, reaching for a fist bump but got a blank stare in return.
Shadowed figures swarmed the orchard.
“How many here?” gift-Allie asked.
“Fifteen? Thirty? I don’t know. It seems like the same group from the house, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it,” Allie said.
Emerge: The Judgment: (Book 2) Page 20
