Chapter 41
“Subway won’t be fast enough to beat him,” I say over Peter’s shoulder. He’s looking up routes that might get us to the facility in the Sewards before Caspar.
“Harker doesn’t have a car on property we can borrow?” Elliot asks.
Sophia stops her pacing before the fireplace to frown at him. “And how would we get a car through the gateway?”
“How do you get any of Harker through the gateway? The furniture and massive art—”
“It’s fascinating magic,” Peter says, sitting up. “Dawnmere was just talking about this in class yesterday, actually—”
“Peter,” Reid barks. “Not now.”
Sophia and I both narrow our eyes at him. Times may be apocalyptic, but we do not make Peter feel bad about his addiction to learning.
“I wish we knew someone with a plane,” Elliot muses.
Reid and I find each other’s eyeline across the dimly lit cottage.
“No,” he snaps before I can even open my mouth.
“He can get us there by tonight. It’s the only way.”
Reid rubs his temples. “Don’t Penny’s parents have a plane?”
“And how do you want me to explain that to Stan Pine? Hey, Stan, can we charter your jet to go kidnap my grandmother before your best friend gets to her?”
“Fuck,” Reid shouts, pummeling his fist into the wall beside his fridge.
“That’s the spirit,” Sophia says.
“Call him,” I tell Reid. “Tell him to come here ASAP. And ask him about the woman who left the Citadel with a syrabraxa in her all those years back. Ask if it could be Ada. I’m going to get the exact address of the institution from my mom.”
While I wait for my mom to answer, I wander into Reid’s bedroom for privacy.
And to quell the anger bubbling inside of me.
I cannot have an episode like the one I had weeks ago.
But I can still hear Reid make his own call in the living room.
“Hey.” A grim pause. “Do you have a private—of course you do…”
“Viv,” my mom greets me. Still sour after today. No surprises there.
“Hi, Mom. Do you know the name of the facility Ada is currently staying in? My friend’s looking for a good home out of state for her grandpa. Kind of a similar situation.”
“Yes, let me pull it up. I bought your dress, by the way. Nora convinced me to go red, yellow, and blue. Primary colors. It’s strong. Sturdy. Safe.”
“We’re all wearing red, yellow, and blue?” I don’t often do color, but I really don’t do multiple colors at once.
My mom sighs like I am just impossible. “I’m going to wear a chic yellow strapless affair. Your sister found a tea-length blue dress, and we bought a red gown for you.”
“Great,” I say, distracted. “Do you have that address?”
“You are so dismissive, do you know that?” I bite my tongue as I listen to her type on her computer. “There, I just sent it to you.”
“Thanks.”
“I’d like to find a time to talk to you about your behavior. The way you fled today was totally irresponsible. Whatever happened between us last year, or if I said the wrong thing at the fundraising luncheon—”
“Mom,” I say, balling up my fists. “I really have to go. I’ll see you Saturday at the gala. We can talk about everything then.”
I swear I can hear the steam funneling out her nostrils. “The dress is being delivered to your apartment tonight. I don’t know if it’s drugs or men or what, but if you miss this gala like you missed the exhibit last year, Viv, so help me—”
“I won’t miss it.” And then I hang up and throw my phone against Reid’s bedpost as hard as I can.
I’m still breathing like a bull before a matador ten minutes later when my skin tightens across my body and an image of shimmering white antlers flashes in my mind.
Deacon’s voice filters into Reid’s bedroom.
He must notice my shattered phone and tense expression, because he greets me with, “Need me to slaughter someone for you?”
I know what will happen when I turn to face him. How my skin will flush and my palms will sweat.
Sure enough, he is luminous in the doorway. Brutally handsome. Eyes pale as a blizzard and just as ruthless. Muscular shoulders. Cigarette behind the ear. His wicked, merciless, heartbreaking half smirk just barely concealing the undiluted power that bleeds from him like a shadow.
It’s been weeks. And I have missed him.
“Hi.” I shift on my feet, willing my heart rate to quiet. Knowing he can hear it.
“Hi,” he mimics. We have never been this cordial. I wonder what game we’re playing.
“Nobody to slaughter. Just my mom.”
“Don’t tempt me with a good time.”
“No matricide today, please.” He opens his mouth to retort, but I interrupt him. “I know, I know. It’s only matricide if I do it myself.”
“I looked into Ada Cadell.”
“You mean you had Baz do it.” I’m stalling because I’m terrified.
“Same difference.” Deacon takes a breath. “She was the host, Viv. Your grandma.”
I sit down on Reid’s bed, knees not working anymore.
The woman who was imbued with the syrabraxa all those years ago was my own grandma.
A syrabraxa that was put into her by someone at the Citadel.
One of the Elders? All of the Elders? What was she doing there?
After, did they go looking for her? Is that why nobody at Shiloh knew her name or even that she was there?
Had my dad hidden her there to keep her safe?
I realize Deacon has taken a step closer. I wonder, briefly, if he’s going to put a hand on my shoulder in comfort. I break the silence before he can. “We have to stop Caspar.”
In the living room, I give the address to the group. “They know, by the way,” I add to Deacon. “About your uncle.”
Reid’s jaw is tight. Deacon sits backward around one of Reid’s kitchen chairs like he’s been invited over to play video games. “Before we fly across the country to beat Caspar to this woman, has nobody suggested working with him?”
“That’s a good idea,” Sophia says, sarcasm dripping. “I hear he plays really well with others.”
Deacon grins. “I’ll show him my good side.”
“You don’t have a good side,” Reid says.
“I thought Ward was your good side,” Elliot offers honestly.
Reid crosses his arms as he leans against the counter. “Ward? The werewolf bartender?”
He says the words with such disdain; I’m reminded that very few demons treat werewolves and vampires or any other “lesser” deviants as their equals the way Deacon does. Not just as equals, but family.
Deacon doesn’t even give his brother the satisfaction of a retort.
“All Caspar wants is the power of the syrabraxa. He doesn’t need to kill Viv or her grandmother to get it if we have that Caspian Ring.
Why don’t we offer to work with him to find it before the new moon?
Ring removes the threat to both Viv and her grandma, and kills Caspar upon use.
That’s what I like to call a closed-loop system. ”
“That’s not what that means,” Peter mutters.
Deacon shrugs. “Close enough.”
Sophia scowls at him. “And the only collateral damage is the entire world when Caspar uses the ring to split open the Chasm.”
“If he’s going to do that either way, why not go with the plan in which this old woman isn’t toasted in the process?”
“Don’t try to reason with him,” Reid warns Sophia. “My brother has no empathy.”
Deacon’s usually unflappable, but at that he leans forward, voice low and lethal as he growls, “I am trying to save both Vivienne and her family.”
Sophia watches him with something new in her eyes. I’ve never seen her look at Deacon like he deserved her attention.
“Give me a break,” Reid snaps, springing from the wall he was leaning against to prowl toward his brother. “You don’t give a shit about Viv.”
I lean over to stretch—my foolish attempt at keeping any fury that could lead to bloodlust at bay. I haven’t fought anything since I’ve been holed up in Reid’s cottage. I haven’t done Pilates all semester. The welcome pull of my ligaments calms me down and elicits a strangled noise from my lips.
“Those breathy sighs…” Deacon hums to Reid. “Familiar, no?”
“You wouldn’t know,” Reid bites out. “Which kills you, doesn’t it?”
I roll my eyes as I grab my bag and my daggers.
Deacon raises his hands in mock defense. “I was just saying she stretches a lot. She’s so flexible. And that body…” Deacon bites his fist and makes a groaning noise until Reid unleashes a red scaled claw and swipes for him. Deacon moves smoothly out of his chair, chuckling lightly.
“Enough,” I tell both of them around the pit in my stomach. I cut my eyes to Soph and Elliot. “Let’s go. We can figure out our game plan on the plane.”
While Sophia pulls on her shoes, I yank Deacon out of earshot. “Why are you torturing him?”
An easy shrug. “I’m good at it.”
“I’m serious. What gives?”
Deacon’s pale eyes glare right through me. A shredding stare. “I don’t like when people claim to be something they aren’t.”
My skin bristles. “What the hell does that mean?”
But Sophia has bounded up to us and we move as a herd to the front door. We’re an inch away when Deacon’s phone rings. He puts up a finger as he answers. “Yello—”
“Sorry, Stag, but there’s been a change of plans.”
A wretched chill runs along my skin, spreading across my limbs like a spiderweb. Slick black hair and the wails of those in pain. I swallow hard, breath ragged.
“What do you want?” Deacon snarls, but I can hear the thud of his heart beneath his shirt.
“We were waiting for you for so long…we had to drink all the liquor on your bird. And your pilot…and all the stewardesses.”
I cut my eyes to Deacon, stomach sinking. It’s his staff Finn’s killed. His people. But Deacon’s mask of icy calm doesn’t waver. A storm, brewing but yet to land. “You’ll suffer for that.”
“I just can’t resist when they have nowhere to run.” Finn sighs wistfully.
If we find another plane. Another pilot—I’ll fly the thing myself.
But something far worse is dawning on me. How would he have known we were on our way to Deacon’s plane unless…
“Tell Viv Abbot I liked her better when she was a nameless whore. Mayor’s daughter doesn’t have the same sex appeal.”
My knees buckle. It’s Soph who holds me up.
Deacon hangs up and pockets the phone. The hard lines of his face are a mask of rage.
It shouldn’t be a shock. Caspar and my mom are old friends.
He knows her husband’s murder was a cold case.
Has probably seen pictures of the whole family.
But the moment he realized my dad’s mother was an aeon…
It likely only took the famously cunning High Thane minutes to piece together that Beatrice’s wayward daughter—the one who behaved so strangely at the fundraising luncheon, who’s always breaking wineglasses at dinner parties and showing up in ripped clothes—was the aeon his son lost. Could confirm it easily by calling Finn and having him google my mom and her kids…
Caspar and Finn know exactly who I am.
They know their syrabraxa host is Beatrice Abbot’s daughter. And now they have two. My grandma as well. The apocalypse is all but nigh. And only forty-eight hours until the new moon.
I move for the door, but it’s Peter who takes my shoulder in his hand. “We won’t make it in time,” he says quietly. “Not all the way upstate. Not without a plane.”
“The ring is our only hope, then,” Reid says. “Did you ever learn anything from Fiona?”
I shake my head. “Fiona said she’d try to talk to the Elders and see what she could find out. That was days ago, though, and I haven’t heard a thing.”
The intensity behind Reid’s eyes nearly scares me. “We have to be smarter. We have to find it…”
“And before the gala,” Peter says. “A minute past midnight on Saturday will be the new moon. He’s going to use the censer to ensure his sanity. Once he kills Viv’s grandmother, he’ll have the power to break open the world.”
“On the bright side,” Deacon mutters darkly, “rent in the city’s about to go way down.”