by Amity Hope
“Well…um…” Riley’s brow furrowed. “I’ve never actually tried before.”
“But you think you could?” Daphne pressed.
Riley glanced around at our group. Her gaze landed on my hopeful face.
“Can you?” I asked quietly.
“I might be able to pull it off,” she hesitantly admitted.
“You are officially my hero,” Daphne said somberly. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
Riley gave her a nervous smile. “There’s plenty I can’t do. I’m not even guaranteeing I can do this. It’s…complicated.”
“We know,” Daphne said. “That’s why we all know we can’t pull it off. But it doesn’t surprise me at all that you can.”
The moment Daphne turned away from Riley, Riley’s smile fell away completely. She began to gnaw on her bottom lip. There was no sign of the confidence I was hoping for. In fact, she looked like a girl who had just realized she was completely in over her head.
Just as quickly as my hopes had risen, I felt them crashing to the ground.
~*~*~
“Samara?” Cecily called from the other side of the door. “You have a visitor.”
“Um, I’ll be out in a minute!” I called back.
I’d only returned from the cemetery less than an hour ago. I had just showered, slipped into a pair of comfy flannel pajamas, and I was now in the middle of brushing out my tangled hair when Cecily knocked.
“I’ll tell him you’ll be right down!”
Him?
I’d assumed it was Riley or Daphne. I hastily finished with my hair and threw on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. I hurried down the staircase, not all that surprised to realize it was Alex that had come to see me.
He was, after all, my closest male friend now that Tristan was absent.
“Is everything okay?” I asked him.
He didn’t look like everything was okay.
“Did something happen to Fin?” I asked as the first edge of panic started to push its way into my heart.
“No,” he quickly assured me. “I just need to talk to you.”
I motioned toward the parlor but he shook his head. He glanced toward the kitchen where we could hear Cecily puttering away with something.
“Outside, maybe?” he suggested.
“Sure.” I slid on a pair of shoes and followed him out.
It was dark but he didn’t seem bothered in the least. He wasn’t nearly as leery of the woods surrounding my house as I was. He led me to the wrought iron bench Tristan and I had shared more than a few times.
“What’s going on? You’re worrying me,” I said.
“I’m going to get straight to the point,” he said. “There was more to that file than I let on. I didn’t feel comfortable sharing what I saw without talking to you first.”
“What else was in the file?” It was too dark to gauge his expression, but I could feel the tension rolling off of him.
“Sam,” he let out a scoff of disbelief, “I don’t know how to say this. But there were notes jotted down. It almost looked like…like a family tree.”
My heart plummeted. “Oh.” I had a horrible hunch I knew where he was going with this.
“You do know,” he said with a sigh. “I wasn’t sure that you did. You never said anything.”
“What is it that you think I know?”
“Sam.”
“I’m sorry. I need to hear you say it,” I insisted. “I need to be one hundred percent sure that we’re on the same page.”
“It was a sketch of the Jaeger bloodline.”
“Damn,” I muttered.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said,” he muttered back. “So how long have you known?”
“Not long, obviously.”
“So is Cecily…is she a Jaeger too?”
“No. She’s not really Tristan’s grandma. She was just watching out for him. His mother, she’s Lamia, his mother asked her too,” I explained. “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Yeah, but there’s more. She had his name written out: Tristan Jaeger. Under that, underlined, were the words ‘find him’.”
“Levi must’ve figured it out,” I said.
“Yeah, and I don’t think it’s a good thing that the Lebeau wants to find him,” Alex pointed out. “If she knows who he really is…”
“She knows how much power he has. Actually, not Tristan, but whoever is inhabiting his body,” I corrected.
“Right. And whoever that person is, he’s Striga. His magic has combined with Tristan’s, making him more powerful still.”
“And unlike Tristan,” I pointed out, “he’s definitely not a nice guy. Anyone involved in body snatching, for lack of a better word, cannot possibly be a nice guy.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Alex blew out a sigh. “Wow. This is huge. I have to admit, Sam, I’m kind of speechless. Finding out that Tristan was Striga, it was…Well, I thought that was crazy hard to grasp. But this? Heir to the line that started it all? A direct descendant of the madman who tapped the energy of a demon?”
He said this in a dull, flat tone. I couldn’t read him at all.
My nerves kicked into overdrive. We needed Alex’s help. I couldn’t lose him now, not because of this. Not over something that was completely out of Tristan’s control.
“Alex, he’s still the same person that we know. He needs us,” I pleaded. “Please don’t let this change your opinion of him.”
“No. I know.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “It’s just hard to grasp, that’s all. I mean, who ever would’ve guessed that Tristan Johnson, the quietest guy in the whole school, was hiding this huge secret.”
“I know. I can’t stop thinking how hard that had to be on him.”
“I can tell you from experience that it sucks to have people judge you when they don’t know you at all,” Alex said.
I was grateful for the darkness. I could feel my cheeks redden as they burned with embarrassment. Until recently, I had been one of those people judging Alex. I had nothing to judge him on other than the basis of what he was. The family he came from. He may not be a Striga, and definitely not a Jaeger, but he was a Necromancer. Necromancers in general had always had a negative reputation attached to them.
Knowing what I now know, I could no longer fathom why I’d judged Alex for that. He was a great guy. A fantastic boyfriend to Finola. And he was proving to be a reliable, devoted friend to both Tristan and me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “If I wasn’t very nice to you in the past.”
He shrugged. “It’s fine. I know you were just watching out for Fin. I can’t blame you for that.”
It was more than just watching out for Fin. She’d had a crush on Alex for as long as I could remember. It was probably because of me that it had taken the two of them so long to get together. I’d been stereotyping. But if he was willing to let it go, to overlook what a snob I’d been, I was grateful for it. I certainly wasn’t going to argue with him over it.
“Besides, it’s not like you ever did anything about it. You never got in my face like some people do.”
“No, but I urged Fin not to chase after you,” I admitted with a grimace.
“Lucky for me Fin is too smart to listen to what you have to say.” His tone was light. His knee bumped into mine. I appreciated that he was trying to bring some levity into the conversation.
I laughed. “That’s the last time I ever try to change Fin’s mind about something. She’s definitely the smartest girl I know.”
A tiny amused smile appeared. Me, giving Finola a hard time when she simply had a crush on a Necromancer. Fin, being completely supportive even though my longtime crush happened to not only be Striga, but a Jaeger.
Talk about ironic.
“Tristan was already an outcast,” I said as I shook off the memory of what I’d thought of Alex. Those negative feelings were in the past, where they would stay. “I know he was so afraid he’d be found out.”
>
Alex let out a tense laugh. “Yeah. And now The Council knows. That can’t be good.”
“Right.” I tapped my fingers on my knees. “It’s funny, don’t you think? How much The Council seems to know? And how little they care to share with us?”
“I was thinking the same thing. They want us to believe the Striga are almost non-existent. They want to keep this whole wretched mess with Bree, Jude, and Tristan under wraps. They somehow know that Tristan is the Jaeger heir. Makes you wonder what else they’re hiding.”
I shivered. He was right. The Council was in place to keep us safe. But I was beginning to question their methods. “I wonder how far they’ll go to keep that a secret. Tristan, I mean.”
“I didn’t want to mention it but yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I have a real bad feeling they don’t have Tristan’s best interest in mind,” he said.
“I wish I could disagree.”
“I’m also not so sure I believe her when she said that she’s letting the Crescent City council deal with it. I think she wants him found. Fast. I don’t think she’s the kind of lady to just sit back and wait for him to be found.”
“So she lied to you,” I stated.
“I think so, yeah.”
“Now I’m worried,” I admitted. “Being Striga is one thing, but being a Jaeger? How is The Council going to handle that?”
“Not just being a Jaeger, but being one and hiding it?” Alex added. “I think we need to get moving on this sooner rather than later.”
“You’re right. We need to get to him before Lebeau, or the Crescent City council, does,” I agreed. “Do you think we can all meet here, after school tomorrow? In the meantime, I’ll try to work out a plan.”
“Sounds good,” Alex said as he stood up.
“Thanks for coming to me with this first,” I said.
“No problem. But where do you think we should go from here?” he asked.
“Honestly, I think if we can keep it between us, that would be best. I don’t want to hide things from my friends, but on the other hand, this really isn’t our news to share,” I said.
He nodded in agreement. “Right. I already don’t like Fin wrapped up in this mess. If The Council finds out what we know, there could be trouble. The less Fin knows, as far as I’m concerned, the better.”
Chapter 9
“Sam, can I talk to you for a minute?” Riley glanced around at the rest of the room. Alex, Finola and Daphne were looking at her curiously. She dropped her gaze even as color flooded her cheeks. When she spoke again, her tone was quiet, subdued, and very un-Riley-like. “In private.”
“Yeah, sure.” I got to my feet. I could feel my friends’ curious gazes bouncing off of me. “We can talk in my mom’s office.”
She nodded and I led the way. The room was off the main hallway. I opened the door and let Riley step inside. I followed, closing the door tightly behind us.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. There had to be something wrong, I was sure of it. Riley was always so cheery. But now? She was fidgety, clearly nervous. My heart sank. “Is this too much? Do you think it’s too dangerous? Is creating a portal out of the question? If that’s it…we can figure out how to do this without you….Maybe.”
I really, really didn’t want to do this without her.
She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Riley?” I placed my hand on her slim shoulder. She felt tense. Her hand dropped and she looked at me with wide, worried eyes. The expression she wore was almost pained. I felt bad for her and I wasn’t sure why.
“It’s not that I don’t want to help you. Because I do,” she said quietly.
“Then what’s the problem?” I tried to sound gentle, rather than accusatory.
She moved away from me, wandered over to the bookshelf behind Mom’s desk. She walked along the books, fingering them, not stopping long enough to really look at any of the titles.
My emotions were teeter-tottering between concern and frustration. I understood something was bothering her. But if she wasn’t actually going to tell me, then what good did it do to ask me for some privacy?
“Okay, Riley—”
“Are we friends?” she asked as she spun around. She stood in front of Mom’s bookshelf, her arms crossed over her chest. “I need to know. Are we really, truly friends?”
I nodded. “Yes, of course.”
She didn’t look convinced. “If we’re friends, that means I can trust you, right?”
Now my interest was piqued. “You can trust me. I swear. We’ve trusted you. Not many people know what happened with Bree, Jude, Tristan. We’ve trusted you with all of it.”
“That’s not exactly true. You didn’t trust me enough to tell me Tristan is Striga.”
I sighed. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you. It’s more like it wasn’t my secret to tell. Finola and Alex, they found out that night at the cemetery. They saw Tristan use his magic. When a Striga uses their magic, it’s pretty obvious. The air fills with this sulfuric odor. Their eyes turn crimson. Not a harsh crimson glow, but just soft. Subtle. Their magic,” I inadvertently wrinkled my nose, “yeah, there’s the crimson glow again, but it’s threaded with black, oily tendrils.”
I massaged my forehead with my fingers. Just thinking of Tristan, seeing him use his magic for the first time, before I knew what he was…it was so overwhelming. There’d been no denying what he was. After that moment, he couldn’t hide it from me any longer. Just like he couldn’t hide it from Finola and Alex. It had been the two of them who had filled Daphne in.
“So it’s pretty freaky, huh?” she asked. “When a Striga uses magic?”
I thought about it. “I don’t know. I guess. Mostly, I was just caught off guard. But looking back, it was pretty amazing as well. The power behind it was just…awesome.”
“And you don’t think any less of Tristan because of it?” She tried to keep her voice even but I heard a note of desperation behind it.
“What’s this really about, Riley?” I could hear our friends in the parlor. Their voices were barely murmurs as they drifted through the walls. “You could’ve asked me this at any time.”
“I need to know. So many people hate Striga on principal. I need to know where you stand,” she said.
“I think,” I said slowly, “that where I stand depends on a case by case basis. Alex recently learned that there are nearly a hundred Striga in town.” She blinked at me in surprise. “I know,” I agreed. “Who would’ve guessed? But what I’m saying is that none of them seem to be a threat. So yeah, I think…maybe…making a blanket judgment is wrong. I used to judge Alex because of what he was. I think I learned my lesson. I wouldn’t want anyone to judge Tristan that way. So I think it’s only fair that I keep an open mind as well.”
“Okay,” she whispered. She pressed her fingers over her lips. Her eyelids fluttered a few times and I realized she was trying to blink away tears.
“Riley?” I asked as I hurried over to her. Concern coursed through me. I couldn’t imagine what I’d said that was so upsetting. “What did I say? Did I say something wrong? I mean, do you disagree with me?”
She laughed lightly, but it sounded choked. “No. I don’t disagree with you. I just never thought I’d hear a Lamia say that. That Striga shouldn’t be judged…the way we’re usually judged.”
Silence filled the room as she stared at me.
“Wait…What?”
“You said I could trust you.”
My heart was pounding as my mind slowly wrapped around what she was saying. I knew what she was saying, where she was going with this, but it was so implausible I was having a hard time comprehending.
“So can I trust you, or not?” she whispered.
I nodded. “You can trust me.”
With a gentle wave of her hand, crimson magic flowed from her fingertips. Her eyes flared, but so subtly I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been watching for it. The tendrils of magic floated to Mom’s solid oa
k table, lifting it off the ground as if it weighed little more than a piece of paper. It hovered several feet off the ground before Riley gently placed it on the floor again.
“Wow…” I breathed the word out.
What she had done hadn’t been hard. I knew that wasn’t the purpose. She’d used her magic to demonstrate what she was. That had been the point of it all.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “We’ve seen you use magic before. That’s never happened.”
“I know. I’ve always been very careful. We can hide what we are, if we try hard enough. It takes some practice. But basically, we use some of our magic to tamp down our magic. It sounds like a paradox, I know. But with some exertion, we can learn to control the…stench as you called it. Our eyes are the hardest to control. Eyes are windows to the soul you know. And everyone knows that Strigan souls are tainted.” She said the last with a bitter laugh.
“That’s not true. I now officially know two Striga and they both have two of the kindest souls I know.”
She turned to me, looking at me warily.
“Really, you and Tristan? You’re both amazing,” I insisted. My heart was pounding and I fought to keep my voice even. I didn’t want to let my shock show. I didn’t want to scare her off. “Look at your willingness to help other people. You are both seriously selfless.”
“Tristan, yes. But I haven’t really done that much,” she said.
“You’ve been willing to help.” I paused as a thought occurred to me. “You’ve been willing to help so far. But what about now?”
“Like I said before, I want to help. But the spell you need me to cast for a portal, it’s a huge spell.”
I nodded.
“It’s going to take all of my concentration. That means I’m not going to have any magic to spare.”
“What you’re trying to say is that you won’t be able to use your magic to tamp down your magic. You’ll need everything you have to cast the spell,” I guessed.
“Correct. Do you think that maybe you could distract the rest of them while I cast it? Or maybe I should tell them they can’t be there because they’ll break my concentration.”
“Or maybe,” I suggested, “you should just tell them. They’re all your friends too, you know. You can trust them.”
