To my surprise, I dream for the first time in weeks. Colors and shapes swirl out of the darkness. The golden link I see every time I bind another legacy to my circle loops around me, then pulls me with it. My drowsy mind can’t fully comprehend what’s happening, but deep down I recall the last time I saw this in my sleep. It was the night Mrs. Gianni banished Jean from Elmwick and suspended her from school.
Only now, I’m not seeing Jean. Instead, I’m watching Charity and her father—their conversation like a scene on TV. They enter what seems to be her father’s apartment down here. The living room has no windows, only shelves packed with books, two reading chairs with a small coffee table between them, and a tiny kitchenette on one side.
“Whatever you’ve got to say, you can save it.” Charity drags her feet and faces the bookshelves, avoiding Eddie.
“Do you really think I didn’t want to be there for you all these years? When I left, did you really think it’s because I didn’t want to see you?”
Charity purses her lips. “I said you can save the usual explanation. Forgive me for not being content to only get to talk to you on the phone every other day. Forgive me for not wanting to spend all vacations stuck in here so I could spend time with you.”
“I’m not going to pretend it’s the same as me still living in Elmwick and seeing you daily, but it could work, if you wanted to give it a chance.”
Charity whirls around, her glossy hair a tornado of wavy strands around her. “Don’t you dare put this on me. I didn’t leave. You did.”
Eddie’s shoulders droop, but he peers into her with hope. “I thought now that you’re a part of the banshee’s circle, you might finally see how little choice I had in the matter.”
This gives her pause. “It’s not true. You could have stayed with us. We needed you. Still do.”
“Carina, Cami’s mom, called me days after she left Elmwick. She’d had a vision.” He takes a step closer to his daughter. “You must understand, I was reeling after your mother’s death. Our house, our town, our daily routine—everything felt suffocating without her. And then Carina told me she’s seen a vision of me in New York, building a community to watch over the stray legacies that try to make their way in this town, hoping its busy atmosphere will hide them from the hunters. It usually did, for a while at least, but not forever.”
He lets her digest that while he fetches a glass of chocolate milk for each of them. He sets them on the small coffee table and sinks into his reading chair. Charity stays frozen for a moment that drags out but finally takes the seat opposite him.
Eddie gives her the faintest of smiles. “I resisted at first. I didn’t want to accept her vision—another vision that breaks our family apart—because I’d never take you on such a dangerous mission. You were safest in Elmwick, at the Academy where you could learn to claim your powers. But Carina kept calling, telling me about her visions. I suppose the New York setting triggered many of them, or she worked on prompting them, knowing she had less and less time to live.”
Charity swallows and finally reaches for the glass of chocolate milk. She takes a delicate sip, her perfectly manicured fingers grasping the glass tightly.
“Do you know what vision finally changed my mind?”
Charity only stares back, but her father takes the silence as an invitation to go on.
“Carina told me she’s seen me and this group of charmers saving her and Cami. Don’t ask your friend about it. She was too young to understand what was going on, and due to my interference, she wouldn’t have even realized how much danger she was in. This group here, we saved her.”
“I’m glad you did.” Charity’s tone is tart. “But you’re wrong if you think choosing Cami over your own daughters paints you as father of the year.”
“I know it doesn’t help how you feel, but Carina shared more...” Eddie’s beetle-black eyes shine with gathering tears. “She told me of a vision about Cami and her circle. She was convinced you guys would make all the difference for the future of the legacies.”
With a loud clunk, Charity sets the glass back on the coffee table. “That doesn’t even make sense. How could she have seen that? Banshees can’t see the future that comes after their death.”
Eddie shrugs. Maybe someone else saw it, but Carina was convinced. And after fighting against everything that I knew was going to happen to your mother for years, and still having to watch it play out, despite our efforts, I knew better than to fight the future she’d seen for me.”
“So that’s it?” Charity’s voice turns nasal. “It was all meant to happen this way and that’s that?”
“Don’t you understand?” Eddie sighs. “Your circle will leave an important mark on the legacies’ fate. If I had taken you out of Elmwick, you wouldn’t have met Cami and linked with her. And if I had not come here, Cami would be dead... But now? Now we’re at a point Carina never told me anything about, so we get to proceed however we see fit.”
Charity, busy twining her fingers until now, suddenly looks up at him. “What does that mean?”
“It means we’re free from the burden of knowing what’s coming,” he says. “I know what my next choice will be. I’ll help you complete your circle. I’ll protect you with my life. And once everything is over, I’d very much like for you to join us here.”
Charity gapes, still processing her father’s words when he stands and beckons for her to follow him down the narrow corridor. There are three doors. I’m assuming to his bedroom, the bathroom, and another room. His hand lingers on the handle before he pushes one of the doors open. It’s a guest room with a single bed, a desk, and a simple wardrobe. It’s definitely not much, but he turns to his daughter, shy expectation in his eyes.
“You could come join us here once you graduate from Elmwick Academy next year. Or you could get your own place in the city, experience life out of that puny town...”
“What about the hunters?” Charity finds it difficult to form a response.
“What do you think we’re here for?” Eddie smiles. “We’d protect you. And besides, the balance of powers might have shifted by then. What do you think?”
But I don’t witness Charity’s response. The sound dulls, like I’m underwater, and the picture blurs until it reshapes into another scene. Evidently, Charity’s feelings of distress have subsided enough to let another scene, a more urgent one, appear in front of me.
Seff and Fillan walk alone on the empty dark streets of Elmwick. A red arrow strikes the tree nearest to them, making them both backtrack.
Bryar steps from behind a nearby hedge with a smirk. “Whatever you’re thinking you should do, I guarantee you’re wrong.”
Her provocation doesn’t sit well with Seff, who growls as a wave of darkness rises inside him and travels through the link to me. “And what do you suggest, little hunter?”
“No need to snarl at me.” Bryar smirks, which seems to further aggravate Seff. “If the wolf elders won’t talk about the powder you found at Elmwick Academy, it’s probably because it’s harmful to your kind.”
“Wonderful theory,” Fillan says with overplayed enthusiasm. “And who among the hunters do you think will help us figure this out when Cami chased half of them out of town and completely alienated the rest? Any offer for help from them will likely turn out to be a trap.”
“That’s why you’re fortunate to have me.” Bryar sounds so chipper that the twins let out identical growls in response. “Relax. Not all hunters are so dedicated to their mission after all that has befallen this town. I have the inner scoop on who’s starting to doubt their beliefs. They’re not all monsters. Some are trying to figure out the right side to be on, just like us.”
Seff and Fillan share a look that means they’re having another one of their silent conversations.
“Well?” Bryar calls out into the crisp night air. “Are you coming?”
“Lead the way, Little Red Riding Hood.”
The mockery in Fillan’s voice doesn’t seem to bother
Bryar, who skips ahead. She takes a turn out of the legacies’ quarter at the north part of Elmwick. I’ve rarely roamed the rest of the streets in town, apart from the very heart of it, near the school, so I quickly lose track of where they’re going.
Though the houses are similar to those on our street, at least at first glance, there’s an air of ordinary about them that’s definitely missing in the legacies’ quarter. Seff’s nostrils flare as he tries to catch a whiff of the air around them with his supernatural powers. I wonder if he can sense danger coming.
A light shines at the end of the street, over the garage door adjacent to a house submerged in darkness. Bryar picks up the pace, leaving less time for the wolves to remind her of their discontent with their low, throaty growls.
The faint light of the single bulb over the garage door illuminates a girl with a heart-shaped face and dark hair. I’ve seen her at school. She hangs out with the hunters, sits with them at lunch, and although she’s thin, I have the feeling she can throw the silver knife she’s twirling in one hand with great precision.
“Hey, Fiona,” Bryar greets her, but only gets an irritated “shh” in response.
So that’s the girl that helped Bryar find Mason at the Narducciis.
Fiona pushes the door behind her open and steps aside to let them in. Bryar saunters inside like she owns the place, but the wolves are reluctant.
Seff stops at the doorstep, throwing a sideways glance at Fiona. “I know you were the one who shot at Cami at her Claiming. Whatever you have in mind for tonight, don’t think I won’t bite you if it comes to it.”
Fillan must deem that threat to be strong enough, because he adds nothing but a withering glare of hatred as he walks past Fiona. She refrains from commenting and enters the garage last, closing the door behind her.
“You expect us to believe she’s sorry for being a hunter or for shooting at Cami?” Fillan’s sneer is clear even under the faint light in the garage.
There’s a car inside, so the four of them are gathered around the hood as if it were a table.
“You’re free to believe whatever you’d like,” Fiona answers before Bryar has jumped in. “I found Mason for you guys, didn’t I?”
“And you’ve turned double agent, why exactly? Suspecting you’re like Mason or what?” Seff wrinkles his nose, fishing for the scent of a lie on her lips.
Fiona smacks the silver knife in her hand on the hood of the car, making me cringe internally at the noise, but the wolves don’t so much as flinch.
“I don’t believe myself to be anything,” Fiona squeezes through her teeth. “All I want is for this madness to stop. Everyone is spinning out of control. At first, we were taught we’re the protectors of this town, those watching over unsuspecting humans that the legacies prey on. But with the attack on Cami, the fight at the Ravenna, and now the extent of the operation the hunters are running to find Mason and Zach... I just can’t ignore the signs anymore. They’re kindling a much bigger fire than I want to burn in.”
“Saving your own skin, then? Smart. I’m kind of impressed,” Fillan gloats like he’s being fed a really juicy piece of gossip.
Fiona tips her head back with a guttural sound of frustration. “I swear, of all the legacies, I tire of your kind the most.”
Bryar flashes a white-toothed grin. “Now that we have the niceties out of the way, shall we get to work?”
Seff sniffles, burning Fiona with a glare, but then takes off his backpack. It lands on the hood of the car with a clunk before he unzips it and fishes out the pouch of powder we found in the wolves’ training room.
“Any idea what this is?” He tosses the pouch to Fiona, who is quick enough to snatch it from the air.
Without her gaze leaving his face, Fiona loosens the drawstring throat of the pouch and brings the baggie to her nose. “Can’t you smell it?”
Seff crosses the distance between them and leans in. “I did. It smells a little sweet, fruity, but I have no idea what—”
Fiona doesn’t let him finish. Once he is close enough to the pouch, she scrunches it with her fingers, making a gray cloud of dust spring out of it. Seff pulls himself away, but coughs, having inhaled the powder.
Fiona stares back at his enraged expression with scientific curiosity. Seff wolfs out, his long canines poking out of his mouth. His eyes flash in a bright, electric shade of icy blue.
“What did you do?” he snarls.
Through the link, I sense a wave of primal, ravenous anger rise inside him like a tsunami. Control yourself, Seff, I want to shout at him, but I’m too far away, watching the scene in front of me without being able to stop what’s happening.
“It seems this is Wolfberry powder,” Fiona says in a dry, shaky voice. “It’s not dangerous to you. It’s dangerous for us when you inhale it.”
Seff growls with a mad, uncontrollable thirst in his eyes. Fiona takes a slow step back from him, but his nose scrunches as he inhales the scent coming from her. Fear, no doubt. And I finally see why. Poison-green droplets of venom pool at the tips of his bared canines.
“What’s happening to me?” he pants. “Why can’t I...?” He fights to pull back into his human form, but it doesn’t work.
“Wolfberry helps extract wolf venom, making a bite even deadlier.” Fiona reaches a hand behind her for the door. “With the extra venom, a wolf bite will almost never turn a human into a wolf. It will always kill them.”
“Then why would you throw it in my face?” Seff shouts at her.
“To prove to you I am telling the truth,” Fiona shouts right back. “You only inhaled a tiny bit now. The effect should only last a few minutes. You can control it, can’t you?”
Seff’s jaw yawns open as more slimy, green venom drips from his teeth. “This was your plan, wasn’t it? To get me to spend my venom?”
“Spend your venom? No!” Fiona pants, almost inhaling a strand of her chin-length black hair. “That would only happen if you inhaled, I don’t know, maybe all of the Wolfberry dust?”
“I can’t stop it!” Seff balls his hands into fists, eyes flashing in the gloomy room. “And if I lose all my venom, I’m dead.”
The words go through me like a spear. This is what undoing the joint spell will require of him—all of his venom, leaving him a corpse once he’s donated it.
Despite Fiona’s terrified expression, Seff’s anger bursts out of him. He grabs her by the throat and throws her through the door, wood splintering in all directions. To her credit, the human girl doesn’t scream. She rolls back into a crouch, staying low, making herself a smaller target.
Fillan tries to grab Seff from behind, but his brother throws him off, fueled by the desire to rip Fiona to shreds.
“We should have never trusted one of you.” He spits venom to the side. “A hunter never changes. But if you kill me and break the circle with it, I’ll at least make sure you go down with us.”
Fillan jumps on Seff from behind, but his brother smacks him, throwing him into the garage door with a loud thud. Lights turn on inside Fiona’s house and along the quiet street, but Seff doesn’t pay them any attention. He lurches for Fiona, who does her best to dodge, but with his superior reflexes, he has her pinned down in two moves.
Fillan slowly gets up to his feet, one hand pressing at the nape of his head where he must have been hit.
“Seff, don’t! You should be fine in a minute. Just wait!” Fiona pleads. “I didn’t—”
He grabs her by the throat, cutting off her flow of oxygen, but even as her face reddens, the girl tries to kick him off.
“Seff!” Fillan shouts behind him, but his twin doesn’t reply.
He doesn’t look up to see the guns aiming at him from the second-floor windows of the nearest two houses.
“Stop it, wolf boy!” Bryar steps up, arrow notched in her bow. “Or I will shoot you.” She then throws a quick look over her shoulder at Fiona’s parents, who aim their guns at Seff. “I’ve got this.”
“Seff, snap out of it an
d let’s get out of here,” Fillan says with a voice he struggles to keep even.
But his brother only lowers his sharp, poison-dripping teeth closer to Fiona’s neck. Bryar’s red lips thin. Steady as a surgeon, she lets the arrow fly. It hits Seff’s left shoulder, making him arch his back from the pain.
Fiona’s quick reflexes allow her to finally kick him off. She stumbles to her feet, but Seff’s wolf side seems to have taken over completely. He smiles before his chest swells with a breath he releases as a blood-chilling howl into the night.
To the north, one by one, the legacies of his kind wolf out to answer his call. The wolves are coming.
And my banshee intuition squeezes my chest in warning. This is an act of war.
Chapter 24. Mason
“Cami!” I reach her first and try to shake her awake, but she lets out another scream.
Behind me, Zach and Vanessa climb down from their top bunks. The bulbs, dark above us, burst into a million hair-thin shreds of glass, which spray on top of us.
“Cami!” I grab her by the shoulders under the feeble light from Jean’s phone, shining further down into the room. “Cami!”
She screams awake, making the other legacies cover their ears. Zach and I, being hidden legacies, aren’t as impacted, but I don’t miss the force of her scream almost shaking the entire room.
“Oh, no,” Cami moans as she takes us in.
I hurriedly pull her to me. “You’re all right. You’re all right.”
Awan turns on the lights, only two of which flicker to life. Cami’s scream must have blown the rest.
“No, no, no...” Her breath hitches. “I had one of the—”
Jean sits on the other side of her mattress. “The what?”
Cami rakes a hand through her messy hair. “Okay, so you know how you guys all have some extended powers because of the circle?” She nibbles on her lower lip. “I didn’t pay much attention to it, since it only happened once before, but I guess I can sometimes see what’s happening to you in my sleep.”
Heritage: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Elmwick Academy Book 3) Page 17
