by Hanna Peach
Alyx couldn’t reveal that the source was Balthazar, a demon. It would raise too many questions about how and why she was trusting him. It would raise the question about why he had helped her. She couldn’t admit to them that she had signed a blood contract with a demon. But most importantly, she didn’t want Israel to know what she had done. She had to get rid of Samyara without ever revealing the deal she made. “I can’t reveal my source. I can only say that I trust him. He gave me Israel’s cure, which worked.”
Alyx heard Dianne grumbling. She could feel Jordan’s eyes fixed on her face. She knew that he had probably guessed it. But she couldn’t think of that now. Now they had to find a way to stop Samyara.
“Who my source is is not important,” she continued before anyone else could speak up. “What is important is what he has told me.” Alyx took a deep breath and forced her eyes up so that she was looking Tobias in the eyes. This is where she had to lie. It was for the best, she told herself. “He told me that Samyara is planning something big in seven days’ time. We absolutely have to stop him before then.”
“Planning what?” Vix asked.
“He’s not sure. But it’ll affect Earth and you can be sure it’ll be bloody. We have to find him and kill him.” Alyx turned to Dianne, the group’s MemorySong. “Can you get inside Adere’s memories? Can you find out where Samyara is hiding?”
Dianne worried her lip with her teeth. “I could try.”
“It is a bad idea,” said Xiang in her soft, stilted English. “Adere is in a delicate situation right now. If you force her to relive those memories in order to get information out of her, who knows how she will fare.”
A curl of anger licked through Alyx. “It’s just something we’re going to have to risk. We’re talking about the fate of the world here.”
“No. We’re talking about the fate of a girl who has been through too much already. Your ‘source’, who you won’t reveal, has claimed something ‘bad’ is going to happen in seven days, but even he can’t say what. What makes one soul less important than all the others?”
Alyx leaned back and crossed her arms. She thought that having Xiang here would help. Obviously not. “I stand by what I said. We need to get inside Adere’s mind. If that means we have to force it, then we have to force it. There’s nothing you can say to make me change my mind.”
Xiang looked about to argue back when Tobias spoke. “I can see that both of you are on opposite sides of this issue and neither will be swayed. Let’s not waste precious energy fighting each other. Let’s put this to a vote.”
“But there are six of us. What if the votes are split?” asked Dianne.
“Since you would be the one who has to perform this MemorySong procedure on Adere, you shall have two votes. Does that sound fair to everyone?” Tobias glanced around the room. “Good. We’ll go around one by one stating ‘for’ or ‘against’.”
“You start, Tobias,” Dianne said in a small voice. Alyx could see that she looked unsure about this whole situation.
“Okay.” Tobias took a deep breath. “It’s a hard decision but I’m the chief of our community and I have to consider what the best decision is for our people…I am for.”
Vix spoke, “I’m against.” Of course she would be.
“Against,” Xiang said.
“For,” said Alyx. “Obviously.”
Two against two with three votes to go. Alyx’s eyes rested on Jordan, who was next. Surely he would vote with her.
“Against.”
Alyx buried a growl in her throat. He was trying to punish her for ignoring him. Or was he angry with her for the things she said to him the last time they spoke?
Two against three. So Dianne was the deciding vote. Alyx slumped back in her chair. Dianne would never take her side. She was outvoted. Alyx felt her insides harden. She was the Guardian, dammit, and she would get what she needed out of Adere even if she had to steal MemorySong bloodink or buy it off the black market and tear through that girl’s brain herself. Whatever it takes. She would do whatever it takes.
Dianne’s quiet voice broke the silence and tension of the room. “For.”
* * *
Jordan tried to pull Alyx aside after the meeting, but she slipped out of the compartment before he could get to her. She raced ahead to find Mason so they could get the key for Adere’s cage. He watched Alyx as she sped off through the station. Something about her demeanor since she took her memories back scared him. There was a kind of torment, a desperation in her eyes that he had never seen before. Desperation was a volatile state. It caused people to do things that they normally wouldn’t do.
Like make deals with demons. Or risk tearing the soul of an innocent girl apart to achieve your aims.
If he could just get through to her…but she wasn’t letting him anywhere near her, not physically and certainly not emotionally. He didn’t know what else he could do but to keep trying.
Tobias stayed inside the compartment to deal with an incoming message from Belle and Aaban, the chiefs of the Florence and Saudi Arabia communities which had also been attacked and destroyed by Samyara. Tobias promised that he would meet them at Adere’s cage soon and to start without him.
Jordan walked beside Dianne as the two of them made their way to Adere’s cage in the back of the underground station. Xiang and Vix walked behind them. He felt Dianne’s hand tuck into his elbow and he was snapped out of his thoughts. When he glanced down at her, he could see she wasn’t looking where she was going and was using him to guide her. Her eyes were gazing off into the distance and she was worrying her lip again.
He patted her hand softly. “Hey. You okay?”
She nodded. Then she shook her head.
Jordan had known Dianne for almost as long as he had been a FreeThinker. He knew she may sometimes come off as a bitch, but it was her way of protecting herself and the people she cared about. You couldn’t have access to other people’s memories and feelings without taking some of it on yourself. He knew. After Dianne had uncovered Mini’s memories of the horror she had experienced at Michael’s hands, he had spent some nights with Dianne, sitting on the side of her bed and stroking her hair so she could fall asleep. They had never been more than good friends.
Rule #1: never get involved with someone in your community.
Except Alyx had blown all three of his rules away.
“You don’t have to do this, Dianne,” Jordan said to her in a low voice. “You had the sway vote. You can change your mind. No one can force you to do anything.”
Despite the moisture in her eyes, Dianne shook her head and her voice hissed out low and more menacing than Jordan had ever heard before. “I’m doing this. For Aradale. For Zia. For Ky. I want Samyara’s head on a stake.”
Jordan’s surprise turned to a glow of pride. Dianne had toughened up over the last few weeks. But losing friends could do that to you. Zia and Dianne had been close. And little Ky, Ana’s son…well, everyone loved Ky.
They arrived near Adere’s cage and waited. It wasn’t long before Alyx and Mason arrived. Mason was the leader of this street gang, a tall barrel-chested man with sharp eyes and an unwavering loyalty to Alyx and Israel. Unfortunately for him.
Mason gave Jordan a dirty look, which he took without flinching. Then Mason bent over the lock with his key and the door was opened.
“It’s best if only a few of us go in,” Jordan said. “I’ll go in with Dianne. In case my skills might be needed as well.”
He was implying the possibility of his needing to use DreamWalker to calm Adere down, but he didn’t want to say it out loud with the mortal there. Speaking of the mortal…
Jordan raised an eyebrow at Mason. “Is he staying?” he asked Alyx.
“Listen, boy,” said Mason. “I’ve seen more of your kind and your magic tricks than I wish to. But this is still my place and I’m the damn captain here. It’s my duty to my men to make sure you ain’t gonna do anything that’s going to endanger them. I’m staying. End of disc
ussion.”
Jordan bristled. He still held some resentment for how Mason had ratted him out to Alyx about her memory loss. But he didn’t argue. It wasn’t worth fighting him. They were, after all, guests in his house, as Mason had said.
Jordan stepped inside Adere’s cage first, Dianne close behind him. Adere’s eyes grew wider as they approached. But she didn’t look up. It was like part of her didn’t even register where she was.
“Steady, Di,” said Jordan softly. “We don’t want to scare her.”
“I think it’s too late for that,” Dianne mumbled, as Adere began to whimper and shuffle back further into her corner as if she might disappear into it.
“I’m going to give her a little DreamWalker so that she’s more relaxed and easier to deal with.” Jordan raised his palm slowly as he cooed reassuringly at Adere.
He let out a small pulse that flowed into her like butter. The poor girl had no automatic defenses. Her eyes widened slightly before they become hooded. Her chin drooped and her gaze rolled down to the dirty floor. Nothing. Not even a thrashing of her hands to try and push this magic off her. This wasn’t even a surrender or acceptance on Adere’s part, it was pure apathy. She barely moved as Jordan crouched down next to her. Not even a whimper escaped her lips. He spoke softly to her as he slipped a hand on her shoulder and tried to catch her eye. “We’re not here to hurt you, Adere.”
He looked over at Dianne, who was now kneeling on her other side. Her nervousness was obvious on her face. They both knew there would be things Dianne would see in Adere’s mind that she wouldn’t want to. “You ready?” he asked her.
Dianne took a small breath. “Not really. But I’m doing it anyway.”
Jordan smiled. Dianne really had begun to push herself out of her comfort zone. First with assisting them with the Florence mission and now with this. He knew it hadn’t been easy for this ex-Castus. “Just stop if it gets too much. No one will think anything less of you.”
Dianne nodded and managed a half-smile before her concentration overrode it. She brushed the damp strands of hair out of Adere’s face, then placed her palm flat against her forehead. The air around them warmed as MemorySong magic ebbed from Dianne’s hand into Adere’s mind. Jordan felt his muscles tense and ready as he watched Dianne closely.
Dianne cried out and her brow furrowed as if she was in pain. Jordan grabbed her arm to pull her hand off Adere’s head, but Dianne said, “I’m okay. Just let me try something…”
Her face screwed up with effort, and the heat in the cage grew almost unbearable. Sweat was beading across Dianne’s forehead and Jordan could feel it moistening his skin too. Adere started whimpering and Jordan could feel her resisting against the DreamWalker magic that he held around her to keep her calm. He focused his concentration a little more and let out a stronger pulse of DreamWalker. Come on, Dianne.
Dianne’s hand started to tremble against Adere. The skin of her face grew paler and paler. That was it, he couldn’t let Dianne keep doing this anymore. He was about to pull her hand off Adere’s forehead when Dianne snatched it off herself before collapsing back to the ground.
“Dianne!” Jordan let his magic drop and he raced to Dianne’s side. She was breathing, thank God. He cradled her head in his lap.
Mason had opened the door to the cell and everyone was beginning to crowd around.
“Step back, guys,” Jordan said. “Give her some air.”
It took a few minutes for Dianne to open her eyes and another few moments before she could speak. “The demon has threatened her not to tell us anything. Adere is terrified, so terrified that she has withdrawn from us completely. There’s a block on her mind. A barrier. I can’t get past it to access any information about Samyara.”
“The demon will still have a connection to her mind even though he has been banished from her body,” Xiang said through the bars. “She doesn’t need us to force ourselves on her. She needs love. And time to heal.”
“That might be how he’s still connecting to her, but this block is more than that. This feels magical. If you imagine each memory like a key of a piano, this feels like someone’s holding down the keys so I can’t play them back.”
“So how do we unblock her head?” asked Alyx.
Dianne shook her head. “I don’t know much about this kind of demon magic. It feels similar to MemorySong but…not. If we go back to the piano analogy, I think that the only way we can get the information we need out of Adere in her present state is if she tells us. As in, she needs to play back these notes to us.”
“But if the demon is threatening her, she won’t tell us anything. God, look at her. She’s barely even here,” cried Alyx.
“If you lessen the demon’s hold on her mind, you shall lessen the block,” said Xiang. “But this will take time.”
“We don’t have time.” Alyx took a deep breath. “What about the survivor of the Darkened massacre at the Hell’s Fire bar? He’s ex-Darkened too. Maybe we’ll have better luck with him?”
Jordan spoke, “We would need to find which hospital he was admitted to, what his name is, what room he’s in.”
Alyx let out an exasperated sigh. “But we could find that out, surely? We have to do something. We only have seven days.”
Seven days. There was that deadline that Alyx was talking about again. Seven days. Jordan peered closely at her. She wouldn’t even meet his gaze, although he could tell that she knew he was watching her because her cheeks flushed pink. Alyx was hiding something.
* * *
Alyx wasn’t fast enough. As everyone was returning to the main station from Adere’s cage, Jordan grabbed her arm, holding her back. “You’re hiding something,” he hissed in her ear.
She froze. What did he know?
Up ahead, Mason paused and turned his head. “Alyx, you okay there?” he asked, suspicion clear in his tone.
“You don’t really want to talk about this in front of everyone, do you?” Jordan whispered.
Alyx bit down a sharp retort. She forced a smile as she addressed Mason. “I’m fine. Jordan and I just need to talk.”
“You sure?” Mason was staring at Jordan’s hand gripping her forearm. It was like a chain. A damn shackle.
Alyx nodded and gritted her teeth. “I’m sure.”
Mason stared at them for another moment before he backed away. “I’ll be close by if you need me. Just yell out, okay?”
As soon as he was out of sight, Alyx yanked her hand from Jordan’s grasp, and this time he let go.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” he said.
“I’ve had a lot on my mind.”
“That happens when you hide things from people who care about you.”
“I told you everything.”
“No, you haven’t. Since you got your memories back you’ve been acting strange…different. Doing things that you usually wouldn’t do.”
He grabbed her hand and brushed her knuckles. The cuts from when she broke into a pharmacy had healed without scars. But Jordan was staring at her hand as if he could see them. “It was Balthazar who gave you that cure, wasn’t it? And he told you about Israel’s full heritage.”
She said nothing.
“Alyx, I’m not going to judge you for turning to Balthazar. I introduced you two, remember?”
“Fine. It was Balthazar. Now you understand why I couldn’t tell the others.”
“What did you give him in return?”
She flinched, then she pulled her face back into a state of composure as fast as she could, hoping that Jordan hadn’t seen her surprise. “What makes you think−?”
“Come on, Alyx. I’m not stupid. If Balthazar, and consequently Lucifer, knows that Israel is the keye and that Samyara is after him, it wouldn’t have cost them anything to just let Israel die. For them to give you the cure, you had to have given something in return.”
She was silent. Goddammit. Why couldn’t Jordan have just accepted her story like the rest of them had?
Jordan c
ontinued, “I can only think of one thing that they could possibly gain in keeping Israel alive…”
Her face burned with shame and she snatched her hand away. “Fine. You’re right. I have seven days to kill Samyara, otherwise I have to hand Israel over to them. Happy? Now you understand how serious this is. I don’t have time to stand around arguing with you.”
“Jesus. Why are you being this way? I’m trying to help you.”
“I think you’ve done enough to help.”
Jordan flinched. Instantly, part of Alyx regretted what she had just said. The other part took selfish pleasure in the fact that she had made him hurt like she was hurting.
“So this bullshit attitude is about us, huh?” he demanded, his voice rising. “You blame me for what happened between us.”
“That is all your fault.”
“Is that what you tell yourself?”
“If you didn’t keep secrets from me−”
“Oh, that’s rich.”
“Get the hell out of my way.” Alyx shoved him aside. He caught her right arm to try to stop her from running. With her free arm, she elbowed him in the stomach. It wasn’t meant to hurt him. Well, not meant to really hurt him. It was just meant to be hard enough that he would let go.
He grunted out a curse. But he didn’t let go. Instead he spun them around and pushed her back into the tunnel wall, his body pinning her against the cold concrete. Everything outside of them seemed to fade.
A snarl pulled at his lips. “Didn’t you stop to think for one minute that if everything between you and Israel was right, you wouldn’t have fallen for someone else?”
“How dare you? I had my memory taken from me.”
“But it doesn’t change the fact that you want me now, don’t you?” He leaned close. “You do. Want me. I can see it.”
“Screw you.”
His lips got close, so damn close. Alyx remained paralyzed by the thought that he might kiss her. “Didn’t you ever think that this thing that happened between us might mean something?”
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
