Chapter 48 #2
“Listen,” Astrid whispered beside me. “That Mod found us in the Governor’s Mansion. He was sent to help us. He’s a private guard for someone really high up in The Tower who wants to help us take down Abadon.”
“Okay,” I shrugged. “Who is this someone really high up?”
Soren’s hand slid up to the back of my neck, fingers warm and inviting. “If we tell you, you can’t run.”
“If it’s Azazel, I’ll kill you both right here and now,” I hissed.
I thought I’d solved it. I thought I knew.
Astrid only shook her head.
Zade glanced back to make sure we were following as we headed toward an elevator.
The Mod was the one who threw me a bone. “Master Chen will be very happy to see all of you, as he has been quite worried ever since his daughter’s name appeared on his tracking roster, but please excuse his…”
I didn’t hear the rest. My ears filled with the rush of blood, my skin burning, my insides doubling in volume.
Everything in me suddenly came under a volcanic pressure, ready to burst.
All of it erupting.
“Don’t freak out,” Zade said quickly as we stepped off the elevator.
Every set of eyes was on me. Soren’s hand still rested at the back of my neck, his fingers pressing in just enough to feel like a leash or a lid.
“I swear to the Creator,” Marigold snarled, “If you ruin this because of your weird daddy issues, then I’ll kill you myself. You will not stand in the way of me getting my brother back.”
Getting her brother…back?
The blood drained to my feet so fast I felt lightheaded. How could I have not realized Matthias wasn’t with us? My gaze went to Salah, who stared at the floor, then to Winifred, who also couldn’t look at me.
“Where—?” I started, but Soren cut me off with a sharp “Shhh. Later, Xiao Ying.”
Adriel snorted. “What happened is Soren saved your life instead of Matty’s. He chose you over someone he’s been best friends with for more than a hundred years. He’ll always choose you, though.”
Astrid smacked his arm.
“It’s true,” he said, not bothering to apologize, then leaned to whisper something only she could hear.
Soren’s hand squeezed my side as he pulled me with him to lean against the wall.
My heart pounded hard enough to shake my ribs. I hoped whatever was making him weak had dulled his hearing, or he’d know.
The voices in my head were starting again.
“You’re mine,” hissed the familiar voice, sounding more and more like that call from Abadon.
“Remember that I have called you by name,” came the quieter one, gentle as a breath.
Wasn’t that what Soren said to me?
You’re mine.
Or something close.
All these voices in my head.
I can’t keep them straight anymore.
I can’t keep anything straight anymore.
That pressure between my shoulder blades ignited once more, now in the waking world.
“I’ll always choose you.”
Soren’s low voice pulled me from the ones coalescing into mayhem in my mind.
Thump.
My heart tried to answer, but I kept my mouth closed tight.
“But I will get Matthias back,” he murmured against my hair. “And it isn’t your fault.”
The Mod turned a dial on the wall, swinging open a vault door with a groaning crank. The sound filled the silence before he disappeared inside and shut the door behind him.
“I bet a whole horde of Mods are going to come out and kill us all,” Marigold sneered. “Leave it to your Little Shadow to get the rest of us killed by the hands of her own father.”
The door swung open again.
“He is ready for you,” came the Mod’s muffled voice.
My father.
He meant my father was ready for me.
The father who’d abandoned me and let them kill my mother.
How dare they bring me here?!
We were led through the vault, down a hallway with white floors and black walls, all steel and nanobot sheen. At the end, an ornate red-and-gold tin door stood guard, a dragon etched across it. The Mod opened the door.
Marigold went in first, Salah and Winifred following. Then Adriel and Astrid vanished into the house, each making a different sound of surprise or awe.
Zade lingered in the doorway, glancing back at me, his bulk blocking the golden light beyond. “I’ll get you out of here if you really want,” he muttered.
“No, you won’t,” Soren answered instantly, stepping between us.
I could run. He wasn’t looking. He was too weak to catch me, maybe. Zade would help. He’d fight Soren off.
“You’re not to touch her,” Soren growled at Zade. “You made a choice, and now you carry his evil in your veins, powering your Upgrades. You will not taint her.”
Zade looked past him to me, then back at Soren. “You already did.”
“Did what?” I asked.
Soren turned, straighter than before. His hand cupped the side of my neck again, cooler now, his grip firmer. “I did what I had to in order to save you,” he said gently.
“Can you three just stop being idiots stuck in a supernatural, destiny-fueled love triangle for a bit?” Adriel’s voice carried from inside, echoing. “Get in here and enjoy the moment of peace before we gotta get back to being hunted.”
I told myself to move. As much as I hated Rui Xi Chen, almost dying had taught me something ugly and undeniable: my deepest regret wouldn’t be failing to kill Azazel. It would be not letting myself belong to the people who had fought for me. These people.
They needed this haven. They needed me, their Daughter of the Scepter, much more than I needed to escape my daddy drama.
The room we entered was enormous—a living room that spanned two stories, as wide as the entire cafeteria at Chapel.
A massive chandelier hung above a sleek leather set arranged around a crystal coffee table.
One wall was nothing but a screen. The others were lined with books.
Off to the side, the kitchen gleamed, nearly as large but with lower ceilings.
Above, a balcony with doors and hallways hinted at bedrooms or offices.
I stayed close to the exit, my back pressing against the metal door Soren had shut behind us. I made myself as small as possible, like a little girl who had done something wrong. Not that it had ever mattered when your father was Rui Xi Chen.
“Welcome!”
Dear ol’ Dad appeared behind the rail on the balcony with lines of wear and tear having carved themselves into his face since the last time I’d seen him. What was it, nearly six years now? His eyes were sunken, and his hair a wild bush of salt and pepper.
The moment our eyes met, he knew. I had nothing but contempt for him. He was no family of mine.
He stepped back from the railing, gaze skittering away as he smoothed his expression to something neutral.
“You all must be exhausted,” he said, starting down the spiral staircase. “Please, make yourselves at home.”
Adriel already had his feet up on the shimmering coffee table, the rest of him melting into the sofa. Astrid stood near him, shaking her head at whatever nonsense he was whispering, but a small smile dimpled her cheeks.
“Hungry? Thirsty?” My father stopped at the edge of the kitchen. “I can make anything you like. Usually, I have more staff, but I wanted us all to have privacy while you’re here.”
I looked anywhere but at him. Everyone else listened politely, except Adriel, who was still pestering Astrid.
And Soren.
Soren watched me like he was waiting for me to commit osmosis through the door and vanish.
I would have, if I had known how.
My gaze caught on the grand piano by the floor-to-ceiling windows, black curtains framing the artificial night beyond. The only thing my father and my grandmother had ever shared was a love for playing the piano.
“Quickly, make yourselves comfortable,” he went on. “We don’t have time for niceties. If you’re tired, you can sleep first. Anyone need a shower? Change of clothes?”
I looked down at myself. Somehow, I hadn’t noticed that I was in clean, unfamiliar clothes. When Soren shifted beside me, I caught the faintest curl of a silent laugh.
At my frown, he smirked.
What the hell?
Did someone change my clothes?
Did he see me naked?!
The others began talking over each other—requests, complaints. I stayed at the door.
“I’ll take you up on the offer to get some sleep,” Winifred said with a chuckle.
“Of course. Every room upstairs is free. Once you’re rested, we can plan how to liberate The Tower.”
Silence fell like a guillotine.
And I remembered that this was the man who gave my mother over to Azazel for her to be executed for her stupid mistake. Even if she broke his heart, she didn’t deserve to die for that. And I certainly didn’t deserve to be orphaned by both of them.
“I’m not working with you,” I said flatly. I stepped forward, ignoring Adriel’s groan and Marigold’s hiss. “I’ll stay long enough for the others to rest. Then I’m leaving.
I didn’t look at anyone. “If they want to come with me, fine. If not, that’s on them.”
Protests rose from more than just Adriel and Marigold this time, but I ignored them, dragging myself up the stairs. I took the nearest room with a lock and collapsed on the bed.
Lying there, alone for the first time in what felt like years, I waited for relief that didn’t come.
Maybe solitude was safer. But it wasn’t better.
Because the possibility of what kind of future I would have after killing Azazel was now starting to resemble a black hole with no end and no meaning.
I needed the others, maybe more than they needed me.
And that, I realized, was the part that scared me most.