Kayden opened the door for me, his shoulders still set just a turn too tight. I sighed and stepped out into the hall, looking down at the boots on my feet as they clicked on the floor. I was happy to find that walking in them was easy, and even the jeans had stretched a little to allow more comfort. It was a trivial thing to concentrate on, but a nice one. There were a lot of things that I had decided to forcibly not think about this morning.
I unwrapped the blueberry muffin Kayden had given me and took a bite as I stared down the empty hallway. In the daylight the weeping willows painted along the wall were shimmering all over, as if someone had thrown tiny flecks of glitter all over them. Long, thin windows ran along the ceiling, just slits of glass set in between the slats of wood, letting the day in. Not for the first time I stopped to admire how pretty this insane world was. Kayden slipped past me and began heading in the same direction we’d come from last night. After a moment, I followed him.
When we reached the sitting room I stopped in my tracks, but Kayden, as if sensing my hesitation, turned around and took my hand, pulling me into the room and wrapping his arm tightly around my shoulders. I looked up at his unreadable face and wondered why he had become so possessive since we got here, but maybe he just knew that crowds make me nervous. And there were a lot of people in the small room.
The light buzz of conversation that had been going on hushed and silenced as we entered. I felt my heartbeat kick up a notch. They were all staring at me. I realized that I recognized most of the people here, and that made me relax a little bit, but my hand tightened a little on Kayden’s where I held it at my shoulder.
Like a little angel from heaven, Soraya broke through the uncomfortable moment by running forward. At first, I thought she was going to Kayden, and he thought so, too, because his arm left my shoulder in anticipation of catching her. But it was my arms that she jumped in to, and it’s a good thing that I have incredible reflexes, because I was so surprised that I could have dropped her.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me with all the strength of a seven-year-old little girl, even though malnourishment had left her bone-thin and short for her age. She smelled of fresh shampoo and her little face was clear of dirt or grime. She felt so different in my arms than she had the last time I had held her, back at the awful village the King ran. It was almost like I could feel more energy radiating through her, more life.
I squeezed her back and ran my hand through her soft curly hair. She lifted her head and whispered in my ear, so low I knew that only I could hear. “I knew you could do it,” she said, in her sweet little voice. “I always knew you would get me and my mommy out of that place.” Her voice cracked a little now, and I knew without looking that she was crying. This made my own eyes burn. “You kept your promise, Alexa. I knew you would.”
I set her down before my emotions could get the best of me. Offering her a smile was the best I could do. I felt guilty knowing that we were nowhere near being out of the heat yet. She was just a child, just grateful that she was out of that village, and I couldn’t blame her, but that didn’t mean that worse things might not wait ahead. Also, I wasn’t the one who had rescued her. That had been Nelly. And that was not something I could think about right now. Not with all these people around.
Catherine was sitting on a bench with Soraya and Tommy, all of them in new clothes. Gavin and Patterson stood off in the corner by the windows that looked out over more bright gardens. Patterson looked worse than I had ever seen him, his face drawn down in long lines, his eyelids drooping as if he hadn’t slept a wink, more gray in his brown hair than I thought had been there yesterday. My heart twisted seeing him that way, and I made myself promise to seek him out later, to talk to him about the hurt he was feeling over my Mother’s death, to tell him that he wasn’t alone in it, though the prospect made my chest constrict.
Camillia was here also, along with Silvia and Sasha. The Warrior who’d introduced himself to me as Simon stood off to one side next to Victoria, who had apparently gotten to pick her apparel as well, wearing a red halter top and jean shorts. I bit back a scowl. I still couldn’t help but feel some animosity toward her. Once I decided I hated someone it was hard to change my mind.
There were two other people whom I also already knew, but hadn’t expected to see. An old woman with wispy white hair and a slightly hunched back, blue penny loafers on her feet and sharp eyes. Olivia. Next to her sat a guy I had met only once, on the last night I had seen Olivia; the night I had gotten her granddaughter, Akira, kidnapped by Lamias. I had to wrack my brain for a moment to remember his name. Then it came to me: Gabriel, Olivia’s nephew. He looked the same as he had before, wavy brown hair, thick-rimmed black glasses and a decidedly interesting face. He nodded when he saw me looking at him, his dark eyes serene behind his glasses.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, and had to stop myself from slapping my palm to my head. It seemed I was becoming an expert at opening conversations with rude questions.
Olivia’s wrinkled face softened as she looked at me, but her sharp eyes studied me in that way she had that I hated, making me feel like she was looking through me, rather than at me. “Same thing you are, Warrior,” she said. “To help put an end to the King’s madness.”
My eyes darted around the room, a bubble of panic forming in my stomach. “Where’s Akira?”
Olivia smiled, the wrinkles in her face cutting deep grooves around her mouth. “She’s fine, Warrior. You needn’t worry. She is with family, safe.”
A thought occurred to me then as everything that had happened since that dreadful night at my house when the Lamias had attacked and taken my Mother came back to me. My eyes narrowed as I looked at Olivia, and I expected my voice to come out angry, but it sounded resigned even to my own ears. “You planned all of this, didn’t you?” I asked. “Sending me to Two Rivers, telling me how to find Dangeon, saying that my”—my voice caught and I had to clear my throat—“that my Mother would be angry with you when she found out. You set it in motion, didn’t you?” I gestured around me, as if the entirety of what I was talking about was visible in the room. “All of this. You knew this would happen.”
Olivia said nothing to this, but she had the decency to look down at her wrinkled white hands, folded in her lap. Her mouth opened once then closed. It was the first time I had ever seen the old woman at a loss for words.
I filled the silence for her. “You knew what would happen if my sister and I went to Two Rivers. You made the choice for me, betrayed my Mother after she had spent her life trying to keep us out of this crazy, sad world.” I paused. “You played me like a pawn in a chess game.”
Olivia looked up at me then, a deep line formed between her eyes. Her voice was heavy when she spoke. “Not like a pawn, War—”
There went my temper again. “Bullshit,” I spat. “I won’t listen to you talk to me in circles anymore. I’m here. You’ve got what you wanted. The only words I want to hear come out of your mouth next better be explaining a damned good plan with which to take down the psychopathic King you’ve got snapping at our heels.”
The room was silent, thick with discomfort and averted gazes. Gabriel spoke then, having sat quiet and undisturbed through my entire rant. His voice was soft, almost a mumble, and I remembered that the only other time I’d met him he had only spoken to me in one word sentences. Despite the tone, though, his words somehow seemed to carry around the room gently, but clearly.
“The first thing to do would be to remove the dark magic the King has over the Five Cities,” he said. “Not just Two Rivers, but all five of the Vampire/Wolf Territories. The people must know what King William has been up to. I would assume that he has been using a Sorceress to place the enchantment—if that’s what it is—on the substances that the people consume. We know he deals with the Accursed, using their blood to create a super race of Warriors. We will need numbers if we are to win this fight. As of now we have some two hundred allies near and around the Five Cities,
but the King’s army with be much larger than that, and stronger.”
I found myself wrapped up in what Gabriel was saying. He had a strange way about him that made you just listen and stare. He didn’t even seem to be pausing for air.
“I believe that we can accomplish this, but it will take a few days. There are many of us who have devoted our lives to this cause, Sun Warrior,” said Gabriel, staring at me over the rim of his thick-rimmed, black glasses. “My Aunt was wrong to do what she did. I would not have agreed to send you in to this…unfortunate situation without explaining to you first what it could cost you. But you are here now, and I can see in your eyes that you will fight with us. The people would rally behind you, and though the King has many, the common people outnumber his army fifty-to-one. These aren’t terrible odds.”
I just stared at him, coming to the conclusion that there was probably some math behind this very scientific rundown, and that Gabriel had actually done it. His voice was so smooth and slight and indifferent that a tiny bit of hope had sprung up in my chest. Fifty-to-one wasn’t terrible odds, but how many of those were Searchers? How many of the “common people” were actually skilled fighters? The Wolves and the Brockens. And me.
I found myself lost in thought as I stood there, surrounded by silent white faces and dismal words. Gabriel seemed to know what he was talking about, and I believed very much that he and his “allies” had been planning for this for a very long time; taking notes, learning secrets. And waiting in the shadows, for me.
But it is not us they have been waiting for, Warrior. Is it? We are not the girl the prophecy speaks of.
“No. We’re not. It’s Nelly. But they don’t know that.”
I don’t think we want them to know that. But some of them do know, Warrior. Some of them do.
I looked around the room and ticked them off in my head, the ones my sister had—how had Tommy put it?—touched. Gavin. Patterson. Soraya. Catherine. Tommy. Victoria. Simon. And Camillia.
Something inside of me pulled tight, as if someone had wrapped a rope around my insides and yanked hard. That was eight people too many who knew my sister’s secret, who could betray her at any point and speak up about her power and her importance and her…current state. As if sensing somehow that I was thinking this, all eight of the people my sister had taken from Two Rivers looked up at me. Catching gazes with each one of them in turn, I realized they did know what I was thinking about. It might have had something to do with the fire that was probably burning behind my eyes, promising to deliver not so sweet nothings if one of them were planning to betray Nelly.
“There is another option on the table,” Gabriel said, drawing my attention back to him. “A unique opportunity that we must consider.”
I raised my eyebrows. I could feel my Monster within me sitting at full attention, listening carefully.
Gabriel continued. “King William has many that follow him, an impressive army of an estimated ten-thousand, at least some of which have been enhanced by Accursed blood, but they are not all always with him. They are spread out in all five cities. Of course, he keeps a personal guard at all times, but I suspect that he moves around so frequently and secretly because he knows of our plots against him.” He paused. “But we know where the King is right now, don’t we?”
Why, yes we do, my Monster chuckled. Intriguing suggestion, Warrior.
I thought about this for a moment. “How many in his personal guard?” I asked.
Gabriel shrugged, just the slightest lift of his thin shoulders. “I can’t give you an exact estimate. Fifty, a hundred, maybe.”
My eyebrows shot up. I’d seen the Warriors the King kept around him. They were enormous beasts as silent as death and just as swift. Huge men with the training of gladiators. Expert killers.
Didn’t seem so scary to me.
“That’s because you’re insane.”
Look who’s talking.
I realized everyone was watching me. “And how many fighters do we have with us right now?”
Gabriel plucked his glasses off his face and began polishing the lenses on the front of his collared shirt. “We can have roughly thirty capable Vampires and Wolves ready to move out in a matter of twenty-four hours. And of course, we have you.”
I took a long moment trying to absorb all of this, but Gabriel cut into my thoughts with his soft, mumbling monotone once more. “I will not repeat the mistakes of others. Every choice that is made from here on out is yours, Sun Warrior. It is your decision if you think we should move cautiously, or strike out at the lion’s neck.”
But we can’t leave here yet, Warrior. We haven’t heard from the Seer, and God-knows-what is happening to Nelly. She needs us now more than ever.
For the first time since we walked into this insane meeting, I looked over at Kayden. He was standing slightly behind me, his arms crossed over his chest, the cords of hard muscles in them standing out, tense and flexed. A little bit of his tawny blond hair had fallen from the short ponytail at the back of his neck, and it hung in his face in a way that I knew annoyed him. His golden eyes were narrowed to slits, his mouth a hard line. He’d said nothing the entire time we’d been here, and looking at him, I was kind of glad he hadn’t. I was sure I was going to hear it later, though.
I turned inward again, searching for the answer to the question that still hung in the air. So, I thought, it had come down to a decision between making a ballsy move that could save a lot of people, or waiting around, losing the opportunity, and hoping for an opportunity that might not even come—the Seer hadn’t even agreed to see me yet—on a chance that I could save my sister from…well, herself. It was a decision that felt as big as it sounded.
Worse yet, nine of the thirteen other people in the room knew about it. They knew what it would mean if I chose to pass on the opportunity to nip the problem in the blood, to possibly kill the King when he wasn’t expecting it. They knew that I was basically being forced to choose between saving the world and saving my sister. And they also knew what my answer would be. They’d have to be very stupid not to.
“How long do I have?” I asked, hoping that my voice didn’t sound as guilty as I thought it did. “How long do I have to decide?”
At this, Simon gave me an almost surprised look, as if he had expected me to jump into the air at the opportunity of taking down the King. Olivia looked up for the first time since I had accused her of planning all of this, her eyes as sharp as ever. “Where’s Nellianna?” she asked.
A little panic went through me. I realized I didn’t have any clue about what kind of story the others had told, or who they had told it to. I also didn’t know how much Olivia knew about Nelly, if she knew that my sister was the one meant to free the people. She had told me before that it was me that was meant to lead the revolution, but was that because she thought it was true or was it some sort of trick? I fumbled for something to say in my head, but an unexpected voice caught me from having to.
“She is safe with her mother,” Camillia said, her eyes catching mine for only the briefest of moments, but I got the message: Shut up. “After Alexa rescued Diana from Dangeon she returned to Two Rivers and helped us escape King William’s wrath. She agreed to come here with me, to fight with us on the condition that her sister be left out of it.” Camillia’s voice was so sure, so steady, so regal that even I almost believed her.
Except our Mother is dead and Nelly is the true Savior.
Olivia nodded, and if she knew differently from what Camillia had said, her old face gave no indication. She looked at me. “I’m glad to hear you found your mother and that she and your sister are well,” she said, “Hopefully, when this is all over you will be able to return to them.”
I think I hate this old bitch, Warrior. She knows what the prophecy says. She knows the savior dies in the end. All for the cause. I swear I won’t judge you if you should somehow decide you want to kill her while she sleeps in her cozy bed tonight. Yes, I’m sure I hate her. We should kill her. That
would be poetic fucking justice for you.
“How long do I have to make this decision?” I asked again.
Gabriel shrugged. “Who knows? The King may have already fled Two Rivers, though I doubt it. He’s got resources and more information there about you than he does anywhere else. I would say a decision should be made by morning. Are you saying you want to wait until then?”
“Wait,” I said. “Why do you think he has more information about me at Two Rivers?”
Gabriel gave me a look that suggested that that was a stupid question, but my head seemed to be spinning in circles going a hundred miles a minute. All of a sudden, this was feeling like too much. Way too damn much.
“Because,” said Gabriel, “you made friends when you were there, no? Acquaintances? Maybe told people little things about yourself, things you might not have thought were even important, but the King will think it’s important. He will think all of it is very important.”
I could feel the eyes of the others on me like weights, could hear the unspoken accusations in my ears. What Gabriel was saying put faces on all the people I was letting down by stalling for time in hopes of saving Nelly. One person in particular stood out in my mind, the person I hadn’t allowed myself to think about so that I didn’t have to feel guilty about leaving him there. About everything.
The Rise (The Alexa Montgomery Saga) Page 15
