Chapter Fifty-Five
FIFTY-FIVE
I STARE, SPEECHLESS, AT HIS towering form. My eyes skate over him hungrily, searching for injury, for answers, for proof that I’m imagining this.
“This isn’t—you can’t—you’re not—”
“Get up, Harper.” Lucas’s voice is a death knell.
I scramble backward, my eyes frantically bouncing between Lucas and the wriggling body.
“B-but if you’re… then who the hell is that?” I point a shaking finger.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to,” he sighs, his eyes traveling behind me. “What now?” he asks someone.
Alastair’s voice is lightly amused. “Show her.”
My back hits a pew as I watch, breath held in my throat, as Lucas yanks the figure up by the back of their robe and pulls the sack from their head.
I fold onto my hands and heave.
“No!” I’m on my feet and running before I know what I’m doing.
Malachi snakes his arms around my middle to hold me in place.
“Maureen?!” I scream, the ground lurching beneath me. “Let go of me!” I claw at his arms like a rabid animal. He hisses but doesn’t loosen his grasp.
“She put up a magnificent fight,” Alastair says from the pew to our right. He leans against it lazily, his glasses at his stomach where he cleans them on his shirt. “Considering her age and lack of magic, I was truly surprised when Lucas came to me with so many scratches and bruises.
“Though of course we had to set the scene for you. Embellish a bit. Couldn’t let you know what tricks we had up our sleeves. We knew that with your recent loss, believing that you were facing another would send you over the edge.
“Sad about her dog, though, poor thing. Heard he got picked up by a rescue and is now living with a foster family, thank the Lord.”
“You fucker!” I lunge again, but Malachi doesn’t budge. “Let me go!”
Lucas’s mouth pulls to the side just a little as he watches me struggle, but it’s quickly replaced by a peculiar flatness.
“Maureen? Maureen? Are you okay? W-what happened to you? What did they do to you?” She’s only half conscious.
She stares up at me with bleary eyes. Old bruises tint the thin skin around her jaw in fading green and yellow.
Otherwise, she doesn’t appear to be too injured.
Still, I bare my teeth at Lucas. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!”
He looks away.
“Now, now, Harper,” Alastair says, tsk-ing as he runs his hands over his hair. “Don’t be mad at Lucas, he’s only following my instructions. Think of her like motivation. You cooperate with us, and she gets to live. Give us a hard time, and I’m going to make him slit her throat.”
I am shaking with so much rage, the still air around us begins to gust. “Traitor!” I spit at Lucas. “How could you do this? You swore to me you weren’t like them!”
Lucas rolls his eyes. “You’re right. I’m not like them,” he says as he drops Maureen, watching as she crumples to the ground.
Stepping over her body, he tucks his hands behind his back, just like his father did earlier.
“I’m worse.”
Alastair chuckles as he looks at his son.
“Don’t listen to him, Harper, he’s just putting on a show.
But you’re right, he’s not a hunter—not a born hunter, anyway.
But his passion, his drive… Ah,” he says, “there I go getting ahead of myself again. I still haven’t filled you in on everything you missed when you took your little nap.
But—” he gestures to Malachi, “do you want to—no? Okay.”
Alastair smooths the wrinkles in his shirt and tamps down his hair, both of which are messier than they were before. What happened in those tunnels? The “code gray?”
“Where did I leave off with my story before… oh yes, your people hid their magic from us, Kai has you marked… hm… Well, there is the matter of his parents. Of my… promotion, to imperial sergeant of the southern district. None of this would be happening otherwise.”
Malachi stiffens in front of me.
“You know, when y’all found one another as children, I knew that one day I would need to correct your paths.
Friendship, love, it’s a distraction. It clouds the mind.
I learned that myself the hard way…,” he trails off for a moment, and I wonder if he’s thinking about his wife.
I glance at Lucas. His eyes are hard as he watches his father call his mother a mistake.
“Anyway, as Malachi got older, it was clear I had another issue on my hands.”
He’s so arrogant as to take a seat in the pew like we’re old friends having a chat. My blood is boiling.
“I’m not sure how well you knew my brother, my predecessor.” He shakes his head. “An angry, angry man. Beat Malachi to smithereens more than once.”
I open and close my fists, visions of that final night last summer flooding my mind. The fear on his face when he heard Josiah’s screaming voice bouncing between the trees.
I can feel the tremors rocketing through Malachi at the mention of his father, the floorboards vibrating beneath my feet.
“Josiah wasn’t only angry, he was stupid.
He lacked vision. He didn’t hear the call from the Holy Spirit like I did.
He didn’t understand how important this day would be.
He didn’t deserve to lead us into the Great War.
He didn’t deserve you.” He gestures to me, and I lunge, Malachi’s arms wrapping around me once again.
“When Malachi killed his family, it was an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice. I know you know a little bit about that, right Harper?”
“Shut up!” I shout. “It wasn’t his fault—it was an accident!”
“Was it?” he asks lazily.
Malachi steps to my side. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, you know what I told you. The forensic mechanic found something suspicious. Besides the severed brakes, of course.” Alastair looks straight at me. “Yellow fingerprints. Oily. Almost like paint.”
I scoff. “What?”
“You were lying,” Malachi interrupts. “I already knew that.”
“Yes, perhaps that was a lie. But it wasn’t the only one.”
“What did you do?” Malachi bellows, and this time I’m the one to place a firm hand on his elbow.
“I only did what needed to be done, my boy. I have single-handedly conducted this entire operation. I have been planning this for nearly two decades. I am the one that brought this to the Higher Order. When your power is infinite, when you are truly immortal, you won’t hold this against me.
“Sometimes we must experience loss in order to grow. In order to conquer.”
My hand flies to my mouth. “Lexie,” I whisper, my heart shattering as I picture her little, freckled face.
Beside me Malachi is vibrating. “YOU KILLED MY SISTER?” He rips his arm from my grasp and runs, leaping, practically flying toward his uncle.
I cut my eyes to Lucas, I watch as something strained flickers across his face. The briefest break in his cold mask. Did he not know either?
Panicked, I turn in a circle, looking for a way out. That’s when I see them. The hoods at the door, near the hall, in the pulpit.
Rushing toward us.
Pulling a thrashing Malachi away from his uncle.
“Don’t move!” Alastair calls to me. “I have them prepped and ready if you even think about running again. If you even lift a finger.”
“I’m going to kill you!” Malachi is screaming, spittle flying from his lips.
My heart is aching, and I’m exhausted. I sway on my feet but steady myself quickly, afraid to show weakness.
“Ultimately, Kai,” Alastair shouts over the commotion, still sitting, unbothered, “I am clearly unamused with your deviation from our plan. It’s not about what you want.
It’s not about what you need. I told you to bring her to me.
Tonight, on the anniversary of the great change, we must honor those that are lost. We must capture the Water, and since—thanks to you—I wasn’t able to mark her myself as we’d planned, it is your duty to the Guard to do so. To mind your place. To fall in line!”
His words increase in volume with every addition, the apathetic mask slipping quickly.
“I mean, urges or not, what if you had killed her?
The time will come to do so! But until then, you risked everything, for what?
And truly, she nearly killed you instead.
What would I have done with her then, huh?
With no one bound to her? She would have been useless to me.
And all this would have been for nothing!
“Thankfully, Lucas was there to stop you both!”
I whip my head around.
Here I am, nearly blinded by rage, but Lucas merely looks bored.
“Brothers!” Alastair calls. “Sisters!” He motions for the hoods to move in.
Released by the guards surrounding us, Malachi angles his body in front of mine.
“Tonight is the night we take control of the water! Together, the two captured Cardinals will lead us to the others. We’ll finally be able to locate the Holy River. We will bring forth a new world!”
Terror slams through me at his conviction. The absurd words coming out of his mouth. I turn, running toward Maureen, hands outstretched. I have to get out of here, but I can’t leave her behind. I let loose a bolt of lightning behind me as Alastair screams, “Stop her!”
I release another blast as hands wrap around me, itchy, blood-red robes scratching against my face as I fight.
Pulling the blade from where I tucked it away, I nick one of them in the side before it’s yanked from me and sent clattering across the floor.
They drag me back toward the middle of the room and shove me into Malachi.
“I’m only going to tell you one more time,” Alastair says, much too calm. “Do. Not. Run.”
“This is insane!” I scream, pushing against Malachi on instinct, all rational thought completely absent from my mind.
“Lucas!” Alastair calls. “Grab the girl.”
Malachi snarls from behind me. “No! She’s mine! I decide what happens to her.”
But Lucas is already behind me, his deep voice even deeper somehow and slithering beneath my skin. “Not anymore, Bro.”
“I’m not your fucking brother!” Malachi growls.
“Sorry. Stepbro,” Lucas deadpans.
I turn to him as he grabs me, fingers digging too roughly into my arm. “How could you?” I ask, hand raising to slap him as Malachi rips us apart, shoving me behind his back.