Peace Piper

by Allie Burton

  Math twisted around and opened another box. Maybe he’d gotten the boxes confused. Maybe someone else had moved the box holding the trumpet. He ripped open another box and then another. The trumpet had to be here.

  He tossed the last box large enough to hold the trumpet aside. Despair rocked his body and his brain. And he’d thought Piper felt the same connection to him. Last night, she’d said she’d been looking for him. Wanted to be with him.

  The joke was on him. She’d been searching for the trumpet.

  “Math?” Falcon gripped his shoulder. “What’re you doing?”

  “It’s not here. It’s really not here.” Bitterness flowed in his veins. “Piper stole the Trumpet of Peace.”

  Math sank to the hard, cold floor. His brain pieced everything together. Her questions. Coming to find him last night. Purposely setting a fire. “It was a trick.”

  He’d been so stupid. So taken advantage of. So used.

  From the start. She’d lied about why she wanted to work with him. Made up the information about the jewel. The urgent texts probably weren’t from her mother. Her mother probably wasn’t even sick.

  “What do you mean?” Olivia’s tentative voice reached out with a caring tone.

  “Piper tricked us. Tricked me.” A dagger shoved through his heart, making it explode in agony and betrayal. His brain split with anguish. He was supposed to be the smart one. “Piper stole the Trumpet of Peace and is taking it to her uncle or the Order of Crucis right now.”

  “I’ve texted everyone the information.” Olivia sat on the floor beside him. “We’ll find the trumpet and Piper.”

  “I don’t care about Piper.” The lie spewed from his angry lips. “She betrayed me.”

  “You don’t know why Piper did this. Maybe she has a good reason.” Olivia wanted to believe that because of her happy ending with Xander.

  Math punched his fist into the concrete floor, causing cracks to form. The pain didn’t do his fury justice. “What reason could there be?”

  For betraying his brothers. For betraying him. For betraying his love.

  His first mission, his chance to prove to his warrior brothers he was more than a brain, and he’d blown it. He knocked his head against the wall again and again. He needed to knock sense into himself. Girls like Piper didn’t fall for guys like him. His feelings for her had taken control of his mind.

  “It’s not your fault, Math.” Olivia patted his knee. Her touch didn’t make him feel better. “I’m the one who panicked because of smoke and insisted everyone evacuate the house.”

  He dropped his head, feeling worse. “I told Piper about how you were trapped in the warehouse fire. Told her you nearly died.” Told her insider information on how to scare Olivia.

  Olivia’s hand stilled. Falcon’s mouth dropped open.

  Math’s lip curled. Disgust with himself ravaged his body. He’d never forgive himself or Piper. “I was an idiot. Piper used me and tricked me and now the Trumpet of Peace is in the hands of our enemy.”

  “You don’t know that.” Falcon’s words said one thing, his tone said something different.

  Math’s stomach turned. “Today is March fourteenth. Pi day.”

  “So?” Aria didn’t understand the significance.

  But Piper did. Because he’d told her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Piper

  “Finally.” Aaron’s cold voice chilled my skin.

  Not the greeting I expected.

  Against my judgement, against my heart, I brought him the Trumpet of Peace.

  “Follow me.” He snatched the trumpet from my frozen fingertips. No thank you, or great job, Piper. Walking, he ran his fingers over the hieroglyphic etchings, confirming I’d given him the real deal.

  “How’s Mom?” My footsteps echoed hollowly on the marble floor. Each step counted down the minutes Mom had left for a chance to live. It was late afternoon, and the time of the Convergence was less than an hour away. “I want to see her.”

  “You will.” His relaxed tone conflicted with the news of Mom’s health.

  “If she’s sick we should take her to the hospital. Call an ambulance.” Panic rushed my words making my demand. One last plea.

  He spared me a disparaging glance. “Your mother is sacred to the Magical Order of Crucis. She will not be defiled by modern medicine.”

  He made it sound as if her fate had already been decided. By him. That was the reason he didn’t want to take her to the hospital. Doctors would learn the truth and know she’d been poisoned, all to become Aaron’s stupid vessel.

  My own blood poisoned with anger. It simmered and bubbled and brewed. I wanted to rip the trumpet out of his hands and call an ambulance, myself. But I understood it was too late for modern medicine. The trumpet had powers and I had to believe, because of Aaron’s need for a vessel, he’d save Mom.

  Following behind him, I held the accusation inside, needing to see Mom first. I wouldn’t convict, but I could push. “What do you need to do with the trumpet?”

  I wanted to understand the process. Learn how the magical powers of the Trumpet of Peace could heal Mom and bring peace.

  “The trumpet has powers bestowed by the gods of ancient Egypt. It links the vessel and helps on the journey.”

  “You said the trumpet will heal Mom.” Grim thoughts invaded my mind.

  “Your mother will never feel pain again.” He’d said that before.

  This time I didn’t believe him. “What journey? Where?” Did Mom have to go somewhere once she was healed?

  “Don’t worry about your mom.” Aaron placed a hand on my shoulder. The touch wasn’t comforting, it was confining, pressing me down. “She will be all powerful.”

  “And healthy? No mental agony?” This might be good for Mom. She’d stay alive with no pain. No longer tormented.

  “Yes.” Aaron must be close to accomplishing his goals for him to be so forthcoming.

  My sacrifice of losing Math would be worth giving this gift to Mom. She’d be happy, healthy, and in control. Maybe in control enough to realize the truth about Aaron.

  Aaron entered one of the ceremonial chambers I’d always been forbidden to see. The chauvinistic Order was for men and about men. And yet, the vessel needed to be a woman.

  I paused at the door. The room was similar to the ceremonial chamber Math and I had snuck into, only smaller. A small raised platform. A speaking podium. Arched niches with statuary of scenes from the Afterlife.

  “Where are we going? Mom’s room is the other way.”

  “A bedroom is for sleeping. Not for dying.” His hard, matter-of-fact voice slashed my chest.

  Anguish radiated outward, numbing my limbs. My brain processed his meaning. “Mom’s not going to die.” The words screeched up my raw throat. Tears sprang to my eyes and I dashed at them with my arm. I drew a shaky breath. A slight hope soothed my aching lungs. “Now you have the trumpet, you can save her.”

  That was the only reason I’d stolen the trumpet from Math. I had to believe the betrayal was worth the cost.

  “This way.” Aaron punched a code on the wall and a passage opened.

  I was beginning to think everyone hid secrets in their basements. With the way I was raised it shouldn’t surprise me.

  “Where are we going?” I stomped my foot giving into fear and anxiety. I wanted to see Mom, find a way to help her. I’d put my faith in the trumpet to save her, in Aaron that he’d know how to save her. I’d sacrificed the rest of my life for this. “How are you going to save her?”

  Aaron stopped. He pivoted to face me. His scowl resembled a gargoyle or one of the ugliest gods. “Your mother faces death with dignity.” He pushed on my back to make me move. “You should face your mother with dignity.”

  How dare he tell me how to deal with the situation? He didn’t care about Mom at all. And Mom wasn’t going to die.

  I swiped at new tears. “But…but you said the trumpet would save Mom.”

  “I said she’d feel
no more pain and be powerful.” He shoved me forward under a columned arch. “Your mother will become an Akh.”

  Stumbling, my heart thudded. Thudded with his words and his misleading statements. Aaron wasn’t going to save Mom from death. He was going to use her, just as he’d used me to get the trumpet.

  “And since I know you’re going to ask what an Akh is,” his you’re-so-stupid tone talked down to me, “an Akh is an effective being with powers bonded to the vessel and the sacred leader.”

  I knew what an Akh was. Math had told me. Except he’d said an Akh lived a miserable half existence.

  My brewing anger exploded. I wheeled around and pounded on his chest. “No!”

  Aaron flew backward and fell on his butt. His shocked expression would’ve been comical if the situation wasn’t so serious. “You’ve been preparing on your own.”

  “Preparing for what?” I stomped toward him, ready to fight to get what I wanted. I’d believed he wanted to help Mom, when all this time he’d been preparing her for death.

  “Grab her.” Aaron’s order had me swiveling my head.

  Cloaked men emerged from behind the arch. Several men grabbed me. Their beefy fingers gripped my arms and legs, pinching my skin. The hurt was nothing to the terror inside. My muscles tensed and my jaw locked. Pulsing panic gave in to knee-jerk reaction. I kicked and punched, trying to break free.

  “Bring her to her mother.” Standing, Aaron brushed himself off. “She’s got super-strength, so keep her in custody.”

  Super-strength? My struggling stopped. Aaron had flown across the room when I’d pushed him. Math had said I had super-strength. Sadness shocked me to stillness. I missed him.

  The cloaked men carried me into the Convergence Ceremonial Room Math and I had discovered the other night. The room they’d been preparing for a ceremony. This ceremony.

  Incense filled the room, creating smoke and an acrid smell. Other members of the Order crowded around the center dais. They wore ceremonial robes in white and maroon. Most of the men wore hoods.

  This must be the Magical Convergence Ceremony. The ceremony where the vessel was called to a higher order.

  And Mom was the vessel being sacrificed.

  “No!” I struggled again, kicking and twisting and trying everything to make the men let go.

  “Do you want to see your mother?” Aaron stepped in front of the group carrying me. “She understands life on this earth is a temporary phase of eternal life.”

  “Yes, I want to see her.” I needed to talk to her, tell her what she was doing was crazy, make her change her mind and help us both escape this madness.

  The men chanting in front of the platform parted, resembling a sea of red and white. My gaze zoomed to the center of the raised dais.

  Mom lay on the platform wearing a white ceremonial tunic with hieroglyphics sewn into a pattern. Large pillows propped her into a sitting position. Her body convulsed, spasm after spasm. She didn’t appear strong enough to hold herself up.

  I choked down a gasp as it went higher, mimicking a scream. The scream echoed and vibrated throughout my entire body, sending rippling quivers of shock and sadness. I froze.

  The men set my feet on the ground. I climbed on the altar and crawled next to Mom.

  Her face was paler than white. Her lips purple. And her eyes had sunken into dark pits of despair.

  A despair reverberating inside me. How could I get us both out alive?

  My chest ached, holding her clammy, papery-thin hand. “Mom, can you hear me?”

  Gazing over the heads of the cloaked men, I searched for a way out. Because I played the trumpet I had super-strength, so I could carry Mom. Except how could I carry and fight?

  “Piper.” Mom’s hoarse whisper was difficult to hear.

  I bent closer to her lips, wanting to send her my love, wishing I could give her my health and strength. “Mom. I’m here.”

  My stomach twisted and churned the acid into an assault. I’d only been gone for a day and she looked so much worse. The muscular convulsions kept coming and coming like she was epileptic.

  Instead of being with Math, I should’ve been getting Mom out of the museum. I shouldn’t have waited so long. I shouldn’t have waited until I was sixteen and she was so sick.

  “You got the Trumpet of Peace?” She struggled to speak.

  I trailed a finger down her dry cheek. “Yes, I got it.”

  It wouldn’t do Mom any good. Did she understand she was dying? That she would become an Akh?

  “You need—” she coughed “—you need to listen to what Aaron wants.”

  I hated that her last thoughts were of that man.

  “What do you want, Mom?” Was I asking for her last request? I resented she always put him first.

  “I want you to do what Aaron says.”

  Be obedient. Do what’s best for the Order. The constant commands dug into my brain, etching my anger. “Why don’t you ever think about what’s best for me, Mom?”

  I hated myself for asking the question on her deathbed. It was the only way I’d get an answer. Why did Aaron always come first?

  Her eyes glazed with a sheen of wetness. Tears? “I didn’t have a choice.” The agony in her words sliced across my midsection.

  I glared at Aaron, who’d put on a maroon robe and held a scroll in one hand and the trumpet in the other.

  “You got the trumpet, Aaron. What else do you want?” I knew there was a reason these people were gathered, and it wasn’t to watch Mom die.

  “You.”

  The one word struck my chest and started the pistons in my brain. Chug, chug, chugging, the pieces fell into place. Mentally, I fell back onto the platform, but I refused to show weakness. When Mom died and became the Akh, they’d need a vessel. I’d never be free from Aaron and the Order. I’d be a prisoner and a slave. I’d never be able to apologize to Math and hope for a better future.

  I glanced at Mom’s emaciated body. If Aaron needed me and wanted me to cooperate, then maybe he’d give me something in return. I could still save Mom.

  “I’ll do whatever you want.” The pleading note in my voice scratched in my ears. “Please, let me take Mom to a doctor.”

  “A deal, Piper?” Aaron’s brows rose in an exaggerated arch. “I find deals don’t stand up to the scroll paper they’re written on. We had a deal with the Society of Aten. They would get the bronze Trumpet of War and the Order would get the silver Trumpet of Peace. When they lost the war trumpet to the Soul Warriors, they stole the peace trumpet, almost losing that instrument, too. The two thieves paid for their deceit with death.”

  “Let one of them become the Akh.” The thieves were already dead.

  “You and your mother have the hereditary connections. We need both of you to become more powerful than any other magical being.”

  This wasn’t about peace. This was a plan meant to gain power and control.

  The cloaked men chanted in soft voices. The spooky song sent shivers over my skin.

  Aaron’s gaze took on a glazed, manic gleam. His twisted smile appeared sinister. “We only had four days to recover the Trumpet of Peace or the mathematical timing to link the vessel to the Akh would be missed.” Aaron leaned over my mother’s body. I wanted to push him away. “Today is that day. You will play the trumpet and take your mother’s place as the vessel.”

  Dropping Mom’s hand, I scrambled back on the platform. “No. I don’t want to be the vessel.”

  “The trumpet is in your blood.”

  The sound of the trumpet wailed inside me, making my bones waver. I sucked in a sharp breath. Math had said something about a hereditary connection.

  “All you need to do is play the trumpet to make the connection.” Aaron held the trumpet out like an offering.

  It wasn’t an offering. It was a curse.

  Being under Aaron’s thumb was a curse. I refused to do as he asked.

  I scrambled back farther on the platform, my back against the wall. I didn’t want to e
nd up like Mom. A slave to the Order. If she died, I wanted to be able to escape. Blowing the trumpet would seal my fate to the Order’s. “No.”

  “It’s your destiny.” Aaron didn’t climb on the platform to chase after me, to force me. He must know more.

  My shoulders slumped. I was tired of people knowing more about me than I did. They might know my past and my ancestors, but they didn’t know me. They didn’t control me. Not Mom and not Aaron. Determination stiffened my backbone and hardened everything inside. I pulled back my shoulders.

  “I can change my destiny.” I’d seen other people, good people like Math and his brothers, change their lives. I could do something, make something of myself.

  The members’ chanting grew louder. Their voices barraged me, similar to shots from a gun. I wanted to duck, yet knew there was no hiding.

  “You can’t change your heritage.” Aaron spared my dying mother a pitiful leer. “With you we won’t need the ugly preparation step. I’m afraid your mother didn’t handle the medication well.”

  The strychnine poison.

  Glancing at Mom’s prone form, tears stung my eyes. She was listless and unresponsive.

  I flattened my lips into a grim line. Anger burst out of my mouth. “You poisoned her!”

  The accusation rang over the chanting. I wanted everyone to hear, to know Aaron was a horrible leader.

  The members ignored my charge. They stepped closer to the platform, filling in the space, blocking any chance of escape. They were a wall. And I was trapped.

  My breathing came faster. Sweat slicked my brow. My pulse counted out my demise. I used my feet to scoot back another inch. All the room I had left. This was what a captured animal felt like. Uncertain. Fearful. No options.

  “It may have come earlier than expected, but this is your ultimate destiny.” Aaron sung, starting the ceremonial prayer. “Your role has been planned since conception.”

  I shook my head, trying to make sense of Aaron’s claim. “W-w-what role?”

  “Your mother played the trumpet when she was pregnant. Your blood is connected to the instrument. Don’t you feel the trumpet’s essence?” Aaron gave me his superior, all-knowing smirk. The same smirk he’d given me when I’d told him I’d fallen asleep when the trumpet played.