Chapter 31 #2
They all leaned in for hugs, except Zeed, who kept his distance and forced a smile, and Fable, who stared at Phyllis like she was a three-headed Cerberus. Did she see through it that quick? Fable was sharp as a razor blade, so I wasn’t surprised.
“Hello.” Fable shot me a confused glance and then turned her attention back to Fake Phyllis again. “Um, it’s good to see you again, Phyllis.”
Yeah, she’d picked up on a tell right away. Good girl, Fable.
“Did you guys have a chance to eat something?” I asked brightly.
“The school had sandwiches sent to the dorms. We grabbed you one like, in case they forgot about you, out here,” Gary tugged a wrapped hoagie from the pocket of his windbreaker.
“Thanks. I’m going to eat the rest of my soup once it cools.” I set it down on the table beside me, “but maybe Phyllis wants it?”
The older woman shook her head and wet her lips.
Her nerves were showing. “Harlow mentioned you had gotten a clue about the Grym Dunaras.” She cocked her head at Fable.
“Can I see it? The idea that a legendary item could be so close is very exciting . . .” she added as she put her hand to her heart.
Fable’s eyes flicked back and forth, as if she was calculating some complex math problem, and I decided to help her out.
“Yeah, Fabes. Why not let Phyll here take a look? Maybe she’ll recognize it and be able to crack the code.”
Fake Phyllis shot a radiant, expectant smile at Fable and held out her hand, and the damage was done. The others knew it as well as I did – I felt the shift in all of them.
Shortening Phyllis’ name without getting some sort of response was a red flag of all red flags. A trigger that would at the very least have had her snorting and muttering under her breath.
Cat let out a low gasp as Gary’s eyes flicked to the Switch and then back to me, understanding flowing through the bond. Fable hugged the satchel at her waist closer and scooted toward me until our sides were pressed together.
Zeed’s expression was grim as he stepped in, hand extended toward the Switch. “Phyllis, you seem to have an eyelash on your cheek –” he broke off and gasped, yanking his hand away the second it contacted her skin. “Fucking hell!”
I instantly dropped into fighting stance as the others rushed to flank me, all of us cornering Phyllis, whose back was to the countertop.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys?” Fake Phyllis demanded with a brittle laugh, her eyes wild with panic. “I know it’s been a tough day, but you’re acting super weird.”
None of how she spoke was our Phyllis. Not that I had any doubt, but the others might.
“When I touch her, it’s just . . . bloody cold,” Zeed murmured. “She’s there, but nobody’s home. Like she doesn’t have a soul.”
“I’ll try, then,” Cat whispered.
I shot her a quizzical look.
“I think . . . my Quirk has come. When we were trapped in Mallachtan’s curse, I had this moment where I knew I could make someone say or even do what I wanted, it’s been blinking on and off all week.
But I knew for sure then.” She risked an apologetic glance at Ellie. “I didn’t do it, but I could’ve.”
“Step back, all of you,” Fake Phyllis warned, holding up a hand, rune-ready. “I don’t know what’s going on with you all, but I’m going to need you to give me some space. An old lady can only take so much!”
Marina let out a snort. “Yeah, sure thing. As soon as our girl here asks you a few questions.”
Cat stepped forward and lifted her shaking hand toward Phyllis, a rune cast before the Switch could react. The rune was similar to what Bryony had used on the Runecoats. “Tell me true . . . Who are you really, and who sent you here?”
Phyllis’s wiry, gray brows rose on her forehead as she shook her head with a laugh, the rune burying into her.
“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m Ph–” Her eyes went wide, and she grabbed at her throat.
She let out a strangled gack and lifted her free hand and pointed in my direction as her mouth began to foam and magic crackled from her fingertips, sparking like she’d touched a live wire.
“Watch out, she’s –”
Ross broke off as Phyllis lurched forward, magic flaring toward us. Without thinking, I cast a shielding rune that covered us all, blocking whatever she was doing. The brilliant flare of the rune blinded us.
Only a few seconds of silence and I opened my eyes. And what I found had me reeling back, horror slashing through me.
The Switch’s eyes were glazing over as she weaved on her feet, the hilt of a dagger protruding from her throat.
Fable’s dagger. One of the Abundance gifts I’d given to her – so she could protect herself no matter what.
Fake Phyllis crashed to the floor in a heap and Fable screamed.
“Oh my gods!” She dropped to her knees beside me, holding her hand out in front of her like it was something separate. “What did I do? I . . . I thought she was throwing a killing rune at Harlow. I just wanted to stop her. I’ve never thrown a knife before, I had no idea!”
Ellie rushed to Fake Phyllis’s side, but it only took a glance to know it was a lost cause. The woman was already gone.
“Holy shit,” Calypso muttered, finally breaking her silence. “That was a crazy turn of events.”
I shot her a glare and moved to Fable. She rocked back and forth like a child as I dropped low to take her arms, pushing my own shock aside.
“Hey. Hey! Bestie, look at me.” She managed to lift her stricken gray-green eyes to mine.
“This isn’t your fault. We are all running on empty.
You reacted without thinking and very well could have saved my life.
It’s going to be alright. I’ll go find Thalienne and see what she thinks we should do, okay? I promise, it will be okay.”
The others huddled around us, and that’s how Liam found us when the door was flung open a few minutes later.
His dark brown hair was wild, and he looked like he hadn’t slept the whole time we’d been gone, if the dark rings under his eyes were any indication.
“Thank fucking hell! You’re alive!” His eyes swept over us and then stopped short on the artist formerly known as Fake Phyllis. “What’s . . . why is there a body on the floor?”
I released my hold on Fable and stumbled toward him, my legs protesting the quick movement. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. She’s a Switch, and she –”
He yanked me into his arms, pulling away a second later to press his lips to mine. Warm. Sweet, and so very kind.
But I didn’t want a candle to warm myself by . . . I wanted a fire that burned as hot as my Phoenix.
I put my hands over his, tugged them away, and stepped back. I understood – he’d thought we were all dead. “We’re okay. This Switch showed up and, well, she’s not the real Phyllis. She came at us and . . .”
Nobody said anything else, and I couldn’t help the little flare of pride.
“It was me,” Fable mumbled miserably, forcing herself to stand. “I thought she was trying to kill Harlow.”
“She was,” Marina said. “That was a bad rune she was spinning.”
“Fable, I don’t blame you one bit.” Liam stepped away, careful not to meet my gaze, clearly uncertain now that the initial rush of relief had passed. “Anyone who knows you knows you would never hurt someone on purpose.”
“You gotta admit, though,” Ross piped in with a low whistle, “that was a pretty epic shot. I mean, right in the gullet.”
Marina jabbed him in the solar plexus with her elbow, and he let out a grunt. “Ross!”
Liam swallowed hard and shook his head. “I know you all must be beyond exhausted, but things here have shifted, and I think it’s time for us to go.”
I shook my head. “No, we can’t. We are beyond exhausted, Liam! Don’t get me wrong, I understand but it’s going to hit us. Three days, no food, no water, no sleep.”
And I had no idea if Typhon was okay. I wasn’t leaving till I at least made sure he would recover from whatever it was he’d tried to do, breaking into an unbreakable curse. Thalienne’s words rolled back to me. He’d woven himself into the curse . . . and he’d have died if we had died.
Where you go, I go.
Liam reached for my hand and I pulled back, ever so subtly.
His eyes were sad, but he gave me the slightest nod.
“Word is already spreading about your identities. I overheard two students talking about what happened inside the curse – even with the gag rune, someone we don’t want to overhear them could – that is the loophole to a gag rune. ”
Well fuck, that would have been good to know.
He locked eyes with each of us. “Mallachtan and his crew will be back any time, only with more Runecoats and more decrees. I don’t think we can wait for the rest of you to find your Quirks – at least not here at Heathermoor.
Let me get you to the other side of the loch tonight, and you start back to Neverthorn while I take care of .
. . this,” he said, motioning to the dead body on the floor.
We were on borrowed time for sure, but . . . I felt it from not only my own body, but my friends’ too.
“Liam. We can’t. There is nothing left in the tank.”
“But we can’t stay,” Fable said, her voice a broken whisper. “Not . . .” Not with a body on the floor and her staring at what she’d just done. I slipped an arm around her shoulders.
“I know, but running blind, without anything left in us to fight . . . because there will be a fight. Even if it’s not tonight, it could be tomorrow, or the next day.
” I sighed, feeling an ache in my bones, and a crushing need to sleep that had me blinking slower and slower.
“We need the night. A day, or at least a few hours to sleep, refuel and be ready. Something.”
I could barely think straight – and that was dangerous. And I knew that before I left Heathermoor, I would have to see Thalienne one more time – whatever Fae magic I had going on, she was the only one I knew who had it in her to help me connect to it.
Not to mention that I wasn’t leaving until I saw Typhon, alive and awake with my own two eyes.
Liam frowned and blew out a sharp breath before facing the others. “And you all? You agree with Harlow?”