by Sadie Moss
As I pushed open the steamy glass door and stepped out, the weight of the world came crashing back down on me again. But the shower had revitalized me enough that my legs didn’t buckle under the pressure.
My room was empty when I returned to it, the door to the hall shut. I threw on a soft, worn T-shirt and a pair of jeans and padded lightly down the stairs.
I poked my head into the darkened living room as I passed, but the television was off. Ivy was nowhere to be seen. Huh. Had she gone back to my old apartment in the Outskirts? Maybe she’d gotten bored here with me gone. Although I didn’t see how that could be possible, as long as the TV still worked.
Voices drew me down the hall, and I smiled as I headed toward the kitchen, my four’s usual meeting spot. Some things never changed.
I pushed the door open… and blinked.
Okay, maybe they changed a little.
My four were gathered around the large kitchen island, deep in conversation with Retta and Darcy. Retta’s son William sat on the floor in the corner with his friend Sophie, playing cards quietly. And Ivy was perched on one of the counters, her wide brown eyes watching them all raptly.
Everyone looked up when I entered. William and Sophie gawped at me, and Retta and Darcy pushed away from the island to fuss over me.
“Oh, Miss Lana! We were so worried about you.” Retta’s soft voice was more high-pitched than normal, and her eyes glistened behind her thick glasses.
“We’ve all been going near out of our minds trying to help your men find you,” Darcy added, surprising me by pulling me into her large bosom for a hug. “They just told us it was Rain. I can’t pretend to be surprised. I’ve heard awful things about that man. His Blighted house staff never last long.”
I pulled back, eyebrows shooting up to my hairline. “You… you know?” I shot a glance at the men. “You told them?”
Retta and Darcy had gleaned a little bit of my history, but not much. And I certainly hadn’t told them I was working against the government from the inside.
“They know everything, Lana,” Corin informed me, his blue eyes warm and reassuring. “They took a blood oath; they’ll keep our secrets.”
My eyes bugged even wider. “They what?” I whipped my head back to the two women. “You did?”
“We wanted to, Miss Lana. We wanted to help, and we knew there was more going on than you’d told us. Jae explained there was no danger in the spell as long as we didn’t intend on breaking our word. And we don’t.”
My mouth dropped open. Hearing Darcy talk so casually about having magic performed on her, and a powerful spell like a blood oath at that, was akin to hearing her mention offhandedly that Jae had dipped her hand in a vat of acid.
I scanned the room again, meeting the amused gazes of my four before looking back at Retta and Darcy. “How long was I gone?”
Fenris laughed out loud at that, and Darcy smiled indulgently before her expression sobered. “Long enough. Things have been moving fast.”
“So I gather,” I muttered, letting them usher me over to the island. “So, you know about the…?”
“Resistance?” Retta nodded, her wild mass of red-brown hair shifting with the movement. “Oh, yes. We’ve even met the new leader. We didn’t know Christine, but this man… well, I for one believe in his vision.”
Damn. Things really had moved fast. It made sense though. The Resistance was a large enough movement that it couldn’t function without a leader for long. And with the escalation of violence against the Blighted and the Representatives’ return to public executions, a strong rebel organization was needed more than ever.
“Who is he? What’s he—?” I started to ask, but then cut myself off. “Wait. I need to hear about what’s been going on, but first, I have to tell you what I learned. It changes everything.”
Darcy settled me on the stool she’d vacated then went to the oven, pulling out a large dish that smelled like meat, cheese, and potatoes.
She served us all while I began to talk. I ate as fast as I could, speaking with my mouth full as I caught the guys up on what happened after Christine used the transport spell to pull me away. I knew I’d lose my appetite as soon as I got to the next part, and I needed the nourishment.
When I explained how Rain had manipulated Christine into working for him, Retta gasped, her eyes darting to William. My heart twinged. Using love to make people do awful things was just about the best definition of evil I could think of.
I went on to tell them how Kate had killed Christine, and that I’d then attempted to kill Rain. When I reached the part where he admitted he was responsible for the Great Death, my lips kept moving, my voice reporting the facts clearly and evenly. But my mind rebelled as it always did when I tried to fully comprehend what Rain had done.
There wasn’t a punishment to fit that crime. There were barely adequate words to describe it.
By the time I finished talking, everyone’s forks were down, food left half-eaten on their plates. Shit. I should’ve warned them this wasn’t a good dinnertime conversation.
Silence hung heavy in the air, but I didn’t try to break it. I’d had days to process this revelation, and I still felt nauseated just thinking about it.
Finally, Corin spoke, his voice harsh and halting. “He let everyone think… we had done it.”
His nostrils flared, and a muscle in his jaw flexed rhythmically. I reached across the island and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly. I knew he was thinking about his family. Rain had caused two great tragedies in his reckless pursuit of power, and everyone in this room had been affected by them somehow.
Well, except maybe Ivy.
But when I glanced over at the ghost, her translucent brown eyes glistened with tears, and her delicate chin quivered.
I guess even the dead can see how fucked up this is.
“We have to tell the Representatives,” Jae said. “It won’t undo what’s done. But they have to know.”
“Will they listen?” Akio raised an eyebrow. His voice was smooth, but his complexion was slightly paler than usual.
“We’ll make them.” Jae pushed his plate away. “They’ll have to—”
He was interrupted as the kitchen door swung open. A middle-aged man with a shiny scalp and tufts of brown hair on the sides of his head walked in, followed by two young teens. The boy froze midstride, and the girl let out a squeak as her gaze fell on me. The older man hesitated too, looking at me with an almost awed expression. Then he turned and hustled the kids out of the kitchen.
I frowned. “What was that about? They’re not scared of me because I’m Gifted, are they? Didn’t you tell them I don’t care about that?”
Darcy nodded, not meeting my eyes as she busied herself with clearing away plates. “Oh, yes, we told them.”
Twisting my still-damp hair around my fist, I looked back toward the door. “Then what—?”
“They probably just can’t believe it’s you,” Ivy interjected, her voice returning to its usual brightness as she wiped away the tears on her cheeks. “It’s one thing to see you on a building or on TV. It’s another thing to see The Crow in person.”
I shook my head in confusion. “The… what?”
“That’s one of the things we have to tell you about,” Fen muttered, poking at invisible crumbs on the kitchen island. Now nobody seemed willing to meet my eyes.
“What? Tell me about what?”
“Oh, I’ll show you!” Ivy hopped off the counter, gesturing for me to follow before walking through the kitchen door.
Dear gods. What now?
Chapter 6
My stomach felt like a lump of cement as I strode down the hall behind Ivy.
I was seriously regretting having eaten at all, especially so fast. Darcy’s delicious food was sure to taste much worse on the way back up, and that was exactly where it wanted to go.
The men trailed after me, and when I entered the living room and stood behind the couch, they gathered close by. They might not thi
nk I was going to be happy about whatever Ivy was going to show me, but they were still here to support me. I reached out and grabbed two hands, feeling two others fall on my shoulders.
Ivy settled onto the couch then reached for the remote on the coffee table, a look of extreme concentration on her face. She slowly brought her finger down, and the TV flickered on, sound blazing. She brought it down again, and the volume muted.
Her head whipped toward me, pride shining on her face. I would’ve teasingly congratulated her for pressing the buttons herself, but the image that popped up on the screen arrested that thought.
It was me.
But… not.
It was a stenciled image of me, looking up and slightly away from the viewer. The image was created in blocks of color, but my features were unmistakable. Above my head, there was a stencil of a crow in flight, wings spread wide.
“Fuck,” I whispered. It was the only word I could think of at the moment.
The camera panned out, and I realized it had been zoomed in tight on the side of a tall building in the Capital. I’d been near there once before in pursuit of a mark. The building was downtown, and it was usually covered in pictures of Secretary General Theron Stearns.
As the camera continued to pull away, my breath caught. Posters of my face with the crow above it were pasted over and over again along the facade of the building. And in the middle, a twenty-foot tall mural was painted in full color.
Me again.
In a flowing blue dress the color of the ocean.
And flanking me were each of my four, their formation creating a V with me at the tip.
“What is this?” My words were soft but had a panicked edge to them, and I squeezed Fenris’s and Jae’s hands so hard their bones grated. “What the hell is this?”
“This was Noble’s idea,” Jae answered softly, not attempting to extract his hand from my bruising grip.
“Who the fuck is Noble?” I spun wildly around to face the men. “What’s going on?”
“He’s the new leader of the Resistance. He stepped in to take Christine’s place,” Corin said. “He’s a good man, Lana.”
“‘Good?’ Isn’t that what you said about Christine?” I shot back, then immediately regretted it. Christine’s betrayal had rocked them too, and she’d hurt us all with her actions. It wasn’t fair of me to blame them for her treachery. Or to blame this Noble guy, whoever he was.
Corin’s gaze lowered. “It is. And we were wrong. But we have to trust someone, Lana. Or the Resistance will fall apart.”
“When we told everyone Christine betrayed us, infighting immediately broke out.” Fen ran a hand through his dark hair. “Some people believed us, and some didn’t. It was getting ugly. But Noble stepped up. He helped us convince the doubters and brought everyone back together. He’s young, but he’s bold. Wait ’til you meet him to judge him.”
I slumped against the back of the couch. “Okay. Fine. But that doesn’t explain this.” I gestured to the screen behind me. “What am I doing on the side of a building?”
“It’s a good likeness of you, isn’t it?” Ivy turned around on the sofa to join our conversation. Her nose wrinkled as she peered at me. “Although I’ve only ever seen you wear a dress once. They should’ve painted you in black.”
“Why did they paint me at all?”
“Noble wants to move faster. Christine was cautious, limiting our activities to disrupting shipping lines and bringing what aid we could to Blighted people, but Noble thinks—and I agree with him—that the time to hold back is over.” Corin lifted his gaze to mine again, determination blazing in his blue irises. “We’re looking at a return to the worst period after the Great Death, when no Blighted person was safe. People in the Outskirts know it. They’re afraid, and they’re angry.”
“They need a symbol.” Akio’s voice was smooth. “That’s you, kitten.”
I blinked. “A symbol of what?”
“Of hope.” His dark eyes glittered, their depths drawing me in like a magnetic force. “Of what the world could be.”
“How?”
“You’re a Blighted woman, suddenly turned Gifted. But you haven’t left your people behind. You’re still one of them. And you will fight for them.”
“I….” My voice trailed off.
I couldn’t deny I still subconsciously included myself among the Blighted and probably always would. And it was true I’d come to the Capital with the sole intention of aiding the Resistance. But it was one thing to think and do those things secretly, in private. It was another thing altogether to be made into some sort of symbol, some larger-than-life icon of an entire movement.
Fuck. I couldn’t even fill out Kate’s shoes. There was no way I could fit into the shoes of that twenty-foot-tall version of myself.
“The Resistance has stopped hiding, killer.” Fen bounced on the balls of his feet, his excitement palpable. “We’ve come out of the shadows. We’re openly recruiting—and people are coming to us in droves. The headquarters are filled to capacity, but sub-cells have been forming all around the Outskirts. It keeps the Representatives on their toes, and keeps us light on our feet.”
My head spun, trying to process everything. “So… the Representatives know I’m with the Resistance?” I glanced at Jae. “No wonder you warded the shit out of this place.”
He shook his head. “No, the Resistance has never claimed you as a member. I’m sure the Representatives suspect, but all Noble has done is take what was already public knowledge about you and shape it into a compelling story.” Warmth flashed in his emerald eyes. “It didn’t take much. Your story is incredible, Lana.”
“So now I’m just ‘The Crow?’ What does that mean? What do I do?”
“You don’t do anything, kitten. Or rather, you just do what comes naturally and let the legend take care of itself.” Akio’s voice held an amused tone that made me want to punch him.
Scrubbing my hands over my face, I let out a growl. “Right. Let the legend take care of itself. I really can’t wait to meet this Noble guy.”
“He’s eager to meet you too,” Jae said. Then his face darkened. “But we have to prioritize stopping Rain. If he succeeds in another magic pull, the Resistance’s entire goal will be moot. Whether it kills the Gifted this time or merely strips their magic, the end result either way will be widespread chaos and death. The fewer hands power is concentrated in, the harder it becomes to wrest back control.”
The dinner I’d just eaten turned into a rock in my stomach. “Rain told me he needed the magic from just a few more strong mages to power the spell, and he got to at least one man before me. But as far as I know, I was the only prisoner left in his compound. So my escape should slow him down at least a little bit. Shit. I should’ve tried to find his machine and break it while I was there.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Jae said sternly. “You were weak and badly injured, and I’m sure it’s well protected. We need more magical firepower on our side before we attempt to destroy it.”
“Or we could just kill Rain.” My words sounded bloodthirsty, but I didn’t care. I was sick of death following me around, but I’d make an exception for that fucker.
“We can’t. Not yet.” Corin’s voice was strained, as if it pained him to say it.
I whipped my head toward him. “Why the fuck not? He’s a murdering psychopath!”
“We know, killer. But it’s bigger than just him. He’s our proof that the Blighted didn’t cause the Great Death.” Fenris ducked his head to catch my eyes. “If he dies before the truth gets out, his secret will die with him.”
“They’re right,” Jae said softly. “We need to let the world know what he’s done. We need to let the Representatives know.”
I threw a glance over my shoulder at the television.
The screen was now displaying a witch and warlock squaring off over two cauldrons in some kind of brewing contest, but all I could see was the image of myself, larger-than-life in a sweeping blue dress.
My four behind me. The silhouette of a crow above my head.
Those were some awfully damn big shoes to fill.
But I had to try.
I turned back to face the men, forcing my unwilling body to press away from the couch and stand straight. “Then tomorrow, I guess I better crash another council meeting.”
There was a time in my life when, regardless of the wisdom of my decision, I would’ve marched right back up the mountainside to Rain’s lair in the middle of the night and thrown myself headfirst into a battle I was ill-prepared for and likely to lose—just because I couldn’t stand waiting.
As I stared up at the dark ceiling in my bedroom, I sort of wished I was still that person.
Fuck waiting.
Fuck strategizing and playing angles and luring people into traps.
There was a bad man out there planning to do very bad things, and if I died trying to stop him… well, that was better than not trying, right?
But I couldn’t think like that anymore. When I was just a loner mercenary living and working on my own, I could be as rash and impulsive as I liked. If I made a mistake or didn’t think things through, the only one to suffer for it would be me. But now, there were four men who needed me to stay alive. Hundreds of Resistance members who believed I was some sort of leader. And thousands of others whose lives depended on me, whether they knew it or not. If I acted impulsively, I wasn’t just gambling with my own life; I was risking all of theirs.
That thought was not helping me sleep.
My four were curled up on the large bed with me, each one of them touching me in some way. Jae’s hand grasped mine, our fingers interlaced. Fen was spooning Jae to get closer to me, his large palm resting on my stomach. Corin was curled up on my other side, and Akio’s hand was tangled in my hair. The patterns of our breath played off each other, forming a singular sound—as if we were one entity.
It felt like that sometimes. Like we were parts of a whole, each of us strong in our own right, but unstoppable together.
