Key walked the few steps from his bedroom into the living room. “I’m glad you accept our humble hospitality,” Key said flatly. Instead of a rebuttal, Jon glared at him. Key turned toward his other two guests with a roll of his eyes. “Everything here is available to you while you stay here.”
Jin offered a weak smile as Key walked them to the spiral staircase. “Make yourselves at home,” Key said.
Home.
Why didn’t that sound strange to her?
Chapter Sixty-Two
“How are we supposed to handle this?” Rooke cradled the phone against his ear as he stood in the Causatum chamber. He peeked through the open space between the door and the frame, watching their three guests. They’d filtered back into the living room and were taking turns looking out the large window in the sunroom that overlooked Elysian. “This is—we aren’t equipped to handle this,” he hissed.
“They gave us an order to bring her here. What were we supposed to do? Tell them no?”
“Of course not, but—” Rooke scrubbed a hand over his face. “You should have seen her, Tahir. It was like looking at a spooked deer. She was scared of the water in the tunnel. Terrified. I slipped up and mentioned Qeres in front of her, and I thought her head was going to pop off her body and fly into the air. Is that how reincarnation works? Does this place remind her of her past life? Like, what if she starts having flashbacks? How are we supposed to answer those questions for her?”
“We aren’t answering anything—we don’t have any answers.”
“This is a mistake. All of it. We should have never been sent on a mission like this.” Rooke’s eyes narrowed. “If Jin is this important to Caeli, we should know everything, right? I don’t get it.”
“Neither do I, Rooke,” Tahir said quietly. “Neither do I.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Jin’s fork served as nothing but a mechanical delivery method. It was a constant, steady orbit of movement—fork, plate, mouth, chew. She shoveled every forkful past her lips, using her teeth to scrape the utensil clean as she removed it. She didn’t taste the mushrooms but she did feel the texture, slimy and mushy.
She hated mushrooms.
Her eyes flicked over the suite and everything in it. The televisions, the pool table, Tahir’s collection of replica Slash guitars, Rooke’s laptops—the bright red skull sticker stared at her—and Key’s photo album. She’d tried flipping through it earlier. It told a story that she couldn’t quite follow, but there were smiles and a lot of laughing and that touch of smugness that said Key like nothing else.
She slid her fork around her plate, pulling pasta over mixed vegetables and swirling sauce around chunks of meat. She scooped up a carrot and studied it like it had all the answers she was in search of on its orange surface, but it was nothing; just another fragment, a small speck in a large picture.
The carrot would never question its place in the world, its purpose. Would anybody tell it? Tell it that it was a carrot? You are a carrot. You are a carrot, and that is a mushroom. You do what you are told.She groaned. God, she was relating to a carrot now.
Hours after their arrival, they had been dressed in these all-black outfits—ceremonial uniforms, Key had told them—while he offered a lame explanation as to why three humans would be participating in a ceremony that was older than the three of them put together.
An explanation reinforced when a rangy man strode into the large suite, unannounced and, apparently, uninvited. The newcomer gracefully chose to ignore Key’s derisive snort when he clapped Key on the shoulder.
He angled his head and studied Jin shrewdly for a minute before he spoke. “It’s good to see you in person.” A splash of mischief crossed his face, one that Jin swore she imagined, the looking sliding from his features in the space between blinks.
“You say that as if we’ve spoken before.”
He propped himself against the arm of the couch. “Maybe, maybe not,” he said, with a controlled composure Jin assumed was meant to be disarming. He cocked his head to the side again as he stared at her, some mystery clouding his gaze. “It’s the most uncanny thing ever.”
“What is?” She narrowed her eyes, because the people up here had a funny way of telling a story without an ending. There was never a punch line, as if they couldn’t trust her with the truth.
“Nothing, really.”
Jin rolled her eyes and laughed. Her doubt grew stronger. “Is there a reason you’ve got us all dressed up?”
The man pushed to his feet and stuck two fingers to his lips so he could whistle. The door to the suite creaked open, and a stiff-backed teenager sidled in.
The dark-haired young man was dressed completely in pristine white, and he had a long aluminium case cradled under his arm. He approached wordlessly and set the case on the glass coffee table. He took a step back to stand close to the man, glaring at Jin as he shifted a long staff strapped to his back.
“Liam, it’s okay. You can relax,” the stranger said, and the youth did the opposite, his eyes narrowing further. Jin crossed her arms tightly, matching Liam’s glare.
Scratching his ear in irritation, the man laid a hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Do a sweep or go find the others if you’re so anxious. You’re making her nervous.”
“But, Leader Ahn!” Liam’s eyes widened in distress.
Jin mouthed the word “Ahn,” recalling the name. The Leader of The Above. Liam slunk away, watching Jin over his shoulder before surveying the rest of the apartment.
“What’s his problem?”
“Overprotective,” Ahn said with a shrug. “He doesn’t agree with a decision I’ve made. More importantly…” He ran a hand across the smooth metal case, his fingers finding the latches and flipping them open one by one.
Jin’s interest was piqued as she watched Ahn’s slow and methodical movements. He cracked it open just a hair before shutting it with a click. He turned to Jin with a strange expression.
“Ever had an out of body experience? Or when you see colors or when you see time…has it ever looked different to you? Compared to other people, I mean.”
Jin hoped her stare conveyed her quickly evaporating patience.
“Nothing, huh? Not even when someone shows you a picture…do you ever hear a sound?”
“Are you drunk?”
“Yeah. With an idea.” Ahn’s shoulders slumped as she continued to stare at him blankly. He flipped the case completely open. From on top of the egg-crate foam, he withdrew what looked to her like a very old Japanese sword with a black blade. “A tachi blade. Hold your hands out.”
Without hesitation, she did as she was told, watching in fascination he laid the weapon across the palms of her hands. She looked up to see an array of emotions flutter across Ahn’s brown eyes, ending in another flash of disappointment before he smiled.
“This is a very important artifact, Jin Amaris,” he said eventually. “I want you to have the honor of presenting this sword to The Above tonight. Sort of a public offering that is made every year.”
Key, who’d been hovering behind the couch, blinked in confusion as he leaned closer to inspect the tachi. “Hey…wasn’t that in the Armory? Did you steal that?”
Ahn groaned in exasperation. “What is with you people? Yes! It was and now it isn’t. I needed it for re—” Key’s raised eyebrow stopped his rant. “It doesn’t matter. She’s presenting this.”
He turned back to Jin. “It’s nothing to be nervous about. There are no words you need to say. You’ll just walk up to me, place the sword in my hands, and walk back.”
“And I have to do this?”
“Well, you don’t have to do anything, but you’re all The Fallen and The Above are talking about. You’d be a sensation. That and…” Ahn’s smile grew incredibly bright and it frightened Jin for a slight moment. “No one is going to be able to do this quite like you...”
Even now, hours later, that smile still made her uneasy. Jin pushed the plate of food away, angry at herself for accept
ing so easily. The queasy, unsettled feeling at the bottom of her stomach had only grown as the hours passed.
She tried pinpointing when her curiosity about Elysian had turned into anxiety, but she couldn’t. Sometime before dinner, she’d found the sunroom, and as she looked over the cityscape, she’d attempted deep, heavy breathing and calming thought but nothing gnawed away at her unease. The random images, the voice—those weren’t helping, either. She recognized the voice from her dreams, from the bridge, from Antris. It was her own, and it was driving her crazy.
She wasn’t being held prisoner, or so Key had said, so maybe the best thing to do was leave? Make a request to whoever ran this circus and leave. What was she waiting around for, anyway? The truth? Maybe she didn’t care about the truth. Maybe she just wanted her life back.
Jin screwed her eyes shut as she threw the fork on the plate, the clank ringing loud in the empty dining room. She didn’t want the damn food anyway. She braced her arms to push back from the table and felt a light kiss on the side of her neck. Warmth surged from the spot, and calm flowed down her arms to the tips of her fingers. She heard, or rather felt, his deep baritone vibrate against her back. “You should eat.”
“I’m not hungry.” Jin shifted in her seat and gave Aiden an appraising sweep of her eye. “You look like an assassin.” She made a show of brushing non-existent lint off his shoulder.
Aiden chose the seat closest to her before hooking a foot around one leg of her chair and dragging it—and her—closer. “That’s not the look I think they were going for,” Aiden whispered with an amused slant to his smile as he leaned in and stole a quick peck. “They’ll be coming to get us soon.”
“They’re coming to get us,” she parroted. “Sounds like I’m being walked to the gallows.” She pointed to the food. “Is this my last meal, Warden?”
“Nah. If this were your last meal, and if I were the warden, you’d get…” He put his finger to his lips. “Soju Bombs and a giant bowl of rice. Non-sticky rice. Eat it a grain at a time. And I’d make you use chopsticks…using your left hand. You couldn’t get up until the last grain was gone. I would want to keep you as long as possible.”
Jin wanted another taste of Aiden’s lips, but she knew if she did, she’d try to get lost in it and never resurface. Maybe drag him to the bedroom, build a fortress of intimacy and familiarity, lock the door, and swear off all invaders.
“Or we could just…” Jin reached for his hand and pulled it into her lap. “We could run away…together. Right now,” she admitted quietly. The underside of her emotions burned as she dragged them over concrete, a bit of cowardice weighing her down. She had been running for so long, and now, in the face of something more powerful and more mystifying than a simple act of revenge, she was ready to hike up her skirts and escape. She rushed to shove her words back in her mouth. “You know what, that was… Just forget I said that.”
“We can’t. We’re so close to knowing, Jin, and if we leave now, I know we’ll be trapped in the apartment, a new one this time, but with the same fears and paranoia…and I don’t want to have to live like that anymore. We’re safe here.” He locked his hands behind Jin’s neck, watching her. “They are having some sort of meeting tomorrow where they promise to explain everything to us. Just one more day, and if it isn’t enough, I promise we can go home.”
Jin snorted. “You can say ‘wait another day’ that calmly because they won’t be dangling you at the end of a string in the act of a public offering. This is so archaic. I mean public offerings? God, I’m half expecting them to ask me to offer the blood of a goat next.”
“Wow, you’re a ray of sunshine today.”
“The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”
Tahir cruised into the dining room, stuffing a cupcake into her mouth. She blinked owlishly at Jin and Aiden. Their heads were close, as if they were sharing a secret. She glanced at her watch.
“I see you two are dressed. Everyone will be here soon,” Tahir mumbled around her treat, scrambling to catch a few pieces that tumbled from her mouth as she spoke. She licked some of the icing off her fingers and almost wiped her fingers on her uniform until she thought better of it.
“And by everyone, you mean…” Jin said as she pulled away from Aiden, one eyebrow raised.
“Some LMs from the other floors. We’re heading over to the coliseum together.” When Jin and Aiden continued to give her the same questioning look, Tahir added, “This whole thing may seem funky to you guys, but this ceremony is like a big party for us.”
On cue, voices loud with laughter echoed from the other side of the doorway. Three knocks boomed against the door to the suite and Tahir turned to it with a grin. But before she could make her way to the living room to open it, footsteps thundered down the stairs and Rooke slid into the kitchen.
“Tee-Tee! How do I look? Do I look okay?” Rooke held his arms out for inspection, turning from side to side.
Tahir’s eyes rolled toward her hairline. The younger Mutare was dressed identically to her, in a dark-gray wool uniform with a large embroidered golden laurel wreath surrounding a gold fox head across the width of his back.
Tahir flicked Rooke’s forehead after he’d spun again. “You look the same as everybody else.”
Rooke whined and stomped his feet. “Way to be helpful.”
“Way to be a paranoid freak. Just go answer the door.” Tahir clapped Rooke on the shoulder and knocked their foreheads together lightly. “She won’t care. Trust me.”
Rooke looked as if he wanted to say more but he was interrupted by another set of loud, angry knocks at the door.
“You want to open the door sometime today?” shouted a deep-baritone voice from the other side. Rooke rushed to flip the lock and open the door. Before it hit the rubber door stopper on the wall, a tall, tawny, shaggy-haired man stepped in and scooped Rooke up in a bear hug.
Rooke squirmed in his arms. “Chance, let me go!”
“Aw! Why should I?” The man squeezed tighter and shook him like a disobedient cub before abruptly dropping him, leaving Rooke stooped and wheezing. Chance barged past Rooke and charged toward Tahir like nothing had happened.
“Tahir! My favorite girl, what’s up? Long time no see!”
Tahir smiled, wincing at Chance’s volume at the same time, and quickly maneuvered around Chance’s open arms to shake his hand as more people flooded the room.
First was a tall, thick-legged young woman with short-cropped, red hair and freckles. She wore an epaulette across her right shoulder, silver with three fleur-de-lis rank insignia pins holding it in place. When the redhead turned for the living room, Tahir saw the shark-in-a-laurel-wreath embroidered across her back.
A dark haired young man with a mischievous smirk followed behind her in a matching uniform, except his had a green epaulette and a Gazelle seal. Chance, now digging through the cabinets in the kitchen, had a seal of a menacing bear across his back and a shoulder covered in blue.
A woman walked in shyly behind the others, with a golden patch across her shoulder. Rooke marched over and threw his arms around her, clamping her arms to her sides. The woman’s eyes bugged out of her face when he squeezed and spun her around, but when her feet touched the ground again, she was smiling brilliantly.
“Did I ever tell you guys the story of how Rooke threw an epic fit when we were assigned to your mission?” Tahir asked Jin and Aiden as she looked in Rooke’s direction. “Not because he didn’t want to go, and not because he was scared, but that woman there, Keane? She’s the newest LM initiate. Rooke made such a commotion while she was taking her Qeres examination that they had to drag him from the testing site. After she passed and recovered, he didn’t want to leave her by herself. It was ridiculous.” Tahir snorted. “This is the first time they’ve seen each other since we’ve come back.”
“Are they…?” Aiden butted the sides of his pointer fingers together, his eyes travelling back and forth between Rooke, who was now recreating some story with wildly
waving arms, and Keane, who stared ardently at him as he babbled about his adventures.
Tahir shook her head. “He’s pretty stupid.”
Moments later, Jon sauntered down the steps with his hands stuffed in his pockets, looking casually suave in his all black. The cuffs of his shirt were rolled up his muscled forearms, and the top two buttons were popped open at his neck. “I see two enchanted fairies buzzing around here. Where is the third? The one with the mouth?”
Aiden chuckled. “In the kitchen guarding the cabinets from the tall one eating all of their food.” He pointed to the kitchen where Key was trying to ward off Chance. The taller man had his head stuck in the refrigerator, his hand wrapped around a package of sandwich meat. Key tried grabbing for it, and while Chance might be burly, he was still quick. Jon and Key locked eyes when Key turned away from Chance in defeat.
Chance looked up and his eyes darted between the general and Jon. “Tension,” he sang, amused. He leaned close to Key’s ear and whispered, “You might want to close your mouth unless you’re looking forward to having something in it.”
Key blinked and pressed his lips together in a thin line. “My mouth wasn’t open.”
“Yeah, sure. The drool says differently.”
Key’s hand flew to his lips and his face pinched when Chance started to laugh. He waved him away like he was an annoying fly. “Go find someone else to harass. Go find someone else’s food to eat. Go find someone else.”
Jin waved a hand in front of Jon’s face and grinned when his eyes reluctantly left the kitchen to focus on her. “That doesn’t look too uniform to me.” She plucked at his rolled cuffs and exposed chest as Jon sat down in a chair.
He shrugged. “They told me what to wear, not how to wear it.”
Chance marched down the short set of steps into the living room. “Aye! Chop- chop, LMs! We got some neophytes to see. Let’s go!”
The Halo of Amaris Page 31
