Chapter Forty
Azazel
“Caleb snuck into an eadi district today. He said they have dead, rotting bodies hanging from gallows.”
Turns out, it wasn’t that hard to find Maitoza’s office, because it was the only door being guarded.
“Shit,” Quinn whispered. “What do we do now?”
“Does the man guarding the door have magic? Check.”
Quinn’s gaze moved from me to the man at the door, his eyes closing. The group of us watched as he silently worked, a strained look appearing on his face.
“He’s a shaytan.”
“Does he like men, women, or both?”
“What? Why does that matter?” Zura asked.
Ignoring her, I stared at Quinn, waiting for a response.
“Men.”
“Cal, you’re up.”
“Yes, captain,” Cal said, saluting me with his middle finger before straightening up and shaking his hair. He leaned down to Zura and Nova, whispering, “Watch daddy work.”
Then he was walking down the hall, pretending to head for the door to the right of the one being guarded. He feigned a double take at the man, rubbing his hands together in what looked like nerves. The guard caught sight of Cal immediately, his body shifting.
“Is he into him?” Nova asked.
“Everyone is into Cal,” Pri whispered, rolling her eyes as Cal turned and faced the guard.
We all watched in what could only be described as awe as Caleb walked up to the man, tucked a barely long enough curl behind his ear, and began talking.
In seconds, the guard was smiling, his dark skin hiding the blush that I knew would otherwise be there.
Nova held back a snort at my side when Cal reached forward and pulled the man in for a kiss.
A second later, the guard was dragging Caleb into the other room.
“Will he be okay?” Zura asked, her green eyes wide.
“He’ll be just fine. He doesn’t have to do anything, but he likes to. This is fun for him,” Quinn said.
“Let’s not waste time then,” Nova added, rushing for the door. She placed her hands on the wood, closing her eyes and letting out a sort of faint hum. It reminded me of the stars. “Got it! That was a pathetic ward.”
“Everyone starts off bad at them, Little Void.” When she looked over her shoulder at me, my breath caught. Her eyes were so beautiful, that honey brown shade making my heart race. I’d missed them.
“Not me,” she said with a wink.
“Eye fuck each other later,” Priya hissed as she pushed past Nova into the office. I laughed, gesturing for everyone else to follow. The mood shifted drastically as we entered the office.
Maybe it was the darkness. No sunlight breached the room, the black curtains blocking it out. Clearly, Maitoza wasn’t a fan of tech, because it didn’t float around the room.
But I wasn’t sure that was what actually unsettled me. Something else. Something sinister I couldn’t quite explain.
Quinn lit the room with tech before the feeling could really settle, all of us looking at each other for a moment, as if to acknowledge the fleeting aura.
“Zura, Quinn, and Priya. All three of you take a separate watch position. Nova and I will search the office. If we’re lucky, Cal will be able to stall the guard long enough for us to find what we need. But we need to know the second that anyone gets near this door.”
“If someone does get near, do your best to cause a scene or distract them. Az and I will need to get out of here and replace the wards without being spotted,” Nova chimed in as she began pulling her curls into a sort of knot at the base of her neck.
It’s so hot when she strategizes with me.
“Bossy,” Priya muttered, grabbing Quinn’s arm and tugging him towards the door. He reached out and held it open, gesturing for Priya and Zura to both go first.
When all three of them were out and the door was shut, Nova and I began moving. She headed straight for the shelves on the left hand side of the room, whereas I moved to the right and went through the long cabinet.
Everything was meticulously organized, labels on every box and book cover. She had wads of parchment wrapped in twine, rolled up pieces stacked on top of one another, and even loose pages fanned out.
I sorted through it all, reading quickly and returning each back to their place. Every single page was stars-focused. It was the kind of religious text that one might find in the cathedral—had it still existed.
“Nothing here. The whole cabinet is basically a shrine for how to ass-fuck the stars,” I said, scrunching my nose in disgust. She sure knew how to go overboard. “Fanatic, like I said.”
“Every book here is normal. Nothing that proves she has ulterior motives, at least. Desk next?”
“Yes, let’s be quick.”
We met in the middle of the room, sorting through one side of the large desk each, the actions reminding me of our frantic search through Father’s desk.
My side had two drawers, both deep. Nova’s had four smaller, more shallow ones.
When I opened the top drawer, all I found were blank sheets of parchment.
The next was locked. I stared at the lock, picturing it twisting and clicking open.
Imagining how the mechanics of it worked and willing them to rotate. A second later, I heard the latch give.
Inside the drawer was only one thing. A journal of some sort. “Nova, look.”
She turned, her eyes lighting up when she spotted the brown, leather bound book. “Yes!”
With a smile, I opened it, laying it flat on the desk in front of us. The first page was blank, but the next contained a single date with the number twenty-one. Below it, the words hanging and Farigh were listed. Flipping through the pages, I skimmed the rest of the words, the contents horrific.
“She has kept track of eadi murders for decades,” Nova said with a gasp, her finger landing on a page.
“This right here was the hanging in the Sham District right before the shadow ritual. It followed a pretty major protest in the shops near my home. We left the apothecary right as it started, and I saw Commander Maitoza. I mean, I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was her.
She told my dad he deserved to walk. After, a handful of eadi were hanged. ”
“But why is she keeping track? What does it do for her?” My mind raced ahead, desperately seeking an answer. “This was in a locked drawer, which means she doesn’t want anyone to find it. Why?”
Nova scrunched her nose, running the pads of her fingers across the page. “Well, it wasn’t just core family members who killed these eadi. It was officials. Elites.”
“Shaytan,” I muttered. “Shaytan killed these eadi.”
“Shaytan have always been the problem in the eyes of the rebels. When they chanted during the protest, they chanted if we die, so do you. And that thing Avery said when we did the first haya drop—”
“Even the stars can’t save you now. I remember it.” The chilling, throaty way the woman had said it stuck with me. Like maybe she’d eat us alive.
“Yes, that. It reminds me of what one of the signs at the protest said. Even the stars can’t save you if you kill us all.” Just hearing it had the hair on the back of my neck standing up, chills breaking out across my skin. “A bit too similar for a coincidence.”
“So, what? She wants revenge on the shaytan then?”
“You know, Jonah told me that all shaytan are a plague. He likened us to a disease, insinuating shaytan are poisoning everything and the only cure is our death. What if…”
She didn’t have to finish the sentence. The second her golden eyes met mine, I knew exactly what she struggled to say.
“What if her real plan is to kill every shaytan?”
“You’re the one who said she was just like your father. Both seem stars-bent on justifying genocide.”
A crash came from outside the office, startling Nova and I.
We jumped, our breaths coming rapidly. Hastily, we returned everything, the lock sticking when I tried to will it to click again.
I got it after a moment, and then the two of us were dashing around the desk, Nova ripping the tech from the air.
Slowly, I cracked open the door, spotting Zura helping a broad man and towering woman pick up a hefty stack of wood.
“I’m so sorry, I’ve always been a clumsy mess!
” she said as she began frantically picking up pieces, her eyes flicking to us momentarily.
Silently, we slipped out of the door. Nova was quick to press her hands to the wood, squeezing her eyes shut as she returned the ward.
Probably strengthened it, too. If it was anyone else, I’d remind them that Maitoza needed to have access to the office without breaking the wards, but Nova was the only person in all of Dajahim I had complete faith in.
When she nodded and took my hand, I let her lead. “Zura, what happened?”
“I didn’t mean to!”
“You never do,” Nova sighed, bending down to help. “I’m so sorry. She has a bad habit of making messes.”
“Really, it’s not a big deal,” the woman said, smiling Zura’s way.
The man beside her seemed inclined to disagree, glaring at Zura with downturned lips.
I helped as well, the five of us cleaning it up in less than a minute.
Just enough time for Cal to strut out of the room beside Maitoza’s office, his face smug and damp.
He winked at us as he passed, heading straight for the door outside.
By the time the group of us stood, the guard was back at his station, sweaty, but dressed and on high alert.
“Come on, Zura. We got the time mixed up for our meeting with the commander anyway.” Nova said, patting Zura’s back.
“Sorry again,” Zura mumbled, keeping her head low. I nodded at the pair of rebels, earning a disgusted look from them both. Nobody here liked cores, that much was obvious.
“Don’t bother coming to any meeting today.
The commander is ill. She doesn’t need to see your face while she’s already sick,” the man spit, lifting his chin as he turned, gesturing for the woman to follow with a shrugged shoulder.
She smiled warmly at Zura before rotating and following the man, the pair stopping in front of the guard to speak in hushed voices.