Chapter 6 #2
“Don’t get me started on her,” I snap, tone shrill.
Energy burns around my fingers. “She’s always hated me and went out of her way to make sure I knew I wasn’t part of the family.
Look at how many lives the Order has destroyed and I’m not talking about the people that died because of them.
Look at us! Raised like warriors. Expected to perform like murderous robots.
Gia should be in school worried about boys and makeup and making cringy videos on social media.
Her biggest threat should be bullies, not demons. ”
“Someone has to hunt the bad things, Wren.”
“Do they?”
“Yes, Wren,” Antonio says, voice calm. “The heroes do. You’re a hero.”
“You sound so brainwashed,” I go on, unable to help myself. “You died, Toni! Died! Like bled-to-death died. And here you are, still spitting their bullshit propaganda!”
His face darkens. “I’m not spitting bullshit propaganda,” he repeats, obviously offended.
“There are good people in this world, Wren. People who want to make a difference. I’m not just talking about hunters.
What about firefighters? Social workers?
Special ed teachers? People who work with the elderly or disabled?
None of those jobs are necessarily easy, yet people do them because they want to make a difference. ”
I look at the koi pond, tears blurring my eyes. “Nothing makes sense.”
“I don’t think life is supposed to make sense.” Antonio comes over next to me, leaning on the railing and looking down at the fish. “Hell, this garden doesn’t make sense. Neither does the big-ass kitchen. Vampires live here.”
I can’t help but laugh. “The garden is all lit up at night. It’s pretty. The kitchen though, I agree. Especially considering this house was built for vampires.”
“Resale value?”
“Maybe,” I reply with another snort of laughter. We both stare into the pond for a moment. “I think I know a way we can contact Leo.”
“A spell?”
“That’s an option, but I don’t want to wait until tonight to do a dream spell, and if he thinks we’re all dead, he might not be in the right state of mind to receive a message.”
“Good point.”
“I made a friend. Shocking, I know. She’s a werewolf, and she would be willing to help. I can’t send her into enemy territory, though,” I say, doubting my plan to ask Delphi to find Leo and deliver a message for us. “Okay,” I say, thinking out loud. “Where was Leo when you came to get me?”
“He went out with a few other hunters to look for Gia.” He raises his eyebrows. “Mom sent him in the opposite direction.”
“She kept you guys apart on purpose.”
His jaw tenses, and I can only guess what he’s thinking. Did they know Marcus Henry was going to use his blood to draw the sigil? Were they okay with him dying if it meant they got unlimited power? I know how it feels to be discarded by your family.
It fucking hurts.
“Even when we kill this demon,” Antonio starts, and I love him for saying when and not if, “the Order isn’t just going to go away.”
“I know,” I tell him. “They’ll be even more mad.”
“They’ll come after you, Wren. Knowing they spent thousands of dollars, manipulated the system, cheated and lied in an attempt to hurt you, but in the end you still came out on top.
That’s a whole new level of embarrassment for them.
The Order isn’t going to take it well. This whole situation wasn’t supposed to happen and I can’t help but wonder… Never mind.”
“You have to say it,” I tell him. “You can’t leave me hanging now.”
“Fine,” he huffs. “I can’t help but wonder if things would be like this if Larissa had come here. We both know Xavier wouldn’t care about her the same way he cares about you. Vampires can’t hold witches spellbound, so you were definitely not part of the plan.”
“So you agree with me: Larissa fucks everything up.”
He just gives me a look. “She’s made things exponentially more difficult, I will agree.”
I wipe a bead of sweat from my forehead and let out a sigh. Anxiety bubbles inside me, but it’s not just my fear I’m feeling. This is one of those times where I am not the biggest fan of being able to sense other people’s emotions.
“You’re right,” I tell Antonio. “We do need to come up with a plan and our regular resources aren’t gonna help us.”
“I hate when you do that.”
“I do, too,” I chide. “My own feelings are enough to deal with.”
Antonio picks a leaf from a tree and starts ripping it into little pieces.
“I really don’t want to say what I’m thinking but you can probably already guess it so I’ll just say it: for the first time, I don’t know what to do, Wren.
We can’t use the Order’s archives. We can’t even somehow get Leo to.
If anyone finds out we’re trying to get info on that specific demon, they’ll stop us.
I can’t ask anyone about how the Order stores important artifacts like a demonic sigil because they all think I’m dead and if they realize I’m alive they’ll kill me because I know the truth. ”
Despite the heat, a chill goes down my back. “You’re forgetting one thing,” I tell him, voice shaking.
“What is it?”
“It’s not just us against the Order. It’s the Order against the Malus family. We both know they won’t go down without a fight.”
Antonio looks at me for a second before turning and throwing the torn bits of leaf onto the ground.
This time, he definitely doesn’t have to say it for me to know what he’s thinking.
We might not carry out some elaborate plan to sneak into the Order’s vault, steal the sigil, and break whatever enchantment that’s on it, not really hurting anyone.
Xavier told me himself he’ll stop at nothing and there are no lines he won’t cross. He’ll do whatever it takes to save me, not caring about the consequences. And if it comes to that, I should stop him, tell him there are other ways and remind him that not everyone in the Order deserves to die.
But right now, it would feel like a lie to say that. And that terrifies me because I’m starting to realize there might not be an uncrossable line for me anymore.