Chapter 31
31
Sonny
F or all their power and influence, it sure appears that the rebellion has got more enemies than allies.
The whole situation would be comical if my own safe house wasn’t tucked deep inside the very woods we’ve been warned away from since the moment we got here.
It doesn’t help that the home has been carved directly into the side of a mountain like some evil lair. The only way to get to it is by creeping through a heavily wooded trail that sits between the two infamous cities. When Quinn turned her van off the road the following morning, I was positive we’d get stuck at least three times.
I’m glad the four of us opted to be housed together. It’s the best decision I’ve made since I found this horrible place. With what we’ve endured together, they feel like a part of me now—an extension of my very being. Now that Poppy is gone, I’m clinging to that bond for dear life.
We’ll ride this out together until the end.
We stayed the night at Quinn’s, sprawled out on her living room floor. I was so tempted to creep up the stairs and find Raze’s old bedroom, but my fear of being caught won out. Something tells me she’s looking for an excuse to get rid of me, and sneaking around her house seems like a great start. She claimed that driving there at night would put the safe house at too much risk. Apparently, it’s less conspicuous to visit during the daytime.
At least we didn’t have to wear those smelly cloaks on the way.
She parks the van beside the base of a looming mountain, and the four of us climb out with her, our necks swiveling around in search of our new home. Dread fills my gut when we come up short, my mind spiraling with possibilities.
No , I stop myself. We can trust them .
There is no sign of life anywhere, though. No home camouflaged by leaves or cabin built into the trees. In fact, we still don’t notice anything even when Quinn walks over to the stoney base. Her hand moves in a blur, like she’s typing into a keypad, and then something shifts to our left. We watch her spin on her heel with wide eyes, noting how she doesn’t spare a glance toward the shifting earth as she heads back toward the van.
A part of the mountain begins to lift, the light from the afternoon sun bleeding into what appears to be a...garage? Four tires peek out at us first until the stone slate lifts up to reveal a four person side-by-side parked on the left and an open space on the right. Toolboxes and a work bench line the stone walls, and rods of fluorescent lights hang from the ceiling.
Quinn waits for the door to open fully, eases the van into the empty spot, then kills the engine and makes her way toward a door along the back.
“If you don’t get in here, I’m going to lock you out,” she warns, her hand hovering over another keypad.
That seems to pull us out of our trance, as all four of us immediately jog in behind her right as the motor begins to rumble and the slate of stone starts to move downward.
“Never in a million years would I have guessed you had a secret lair,” Jonah mutters quietly.
She waits for the stone door to seal shut before twisting the knob on the one before us and pushing it open. Her reply is so quiet, I almost miss it under the intakes of breath from my friends.
“It’s not mine,” she retorts.
But our attention has settled completely on the stunning interior before us. I imagined our safe house to be just as quaint and inconspicuous as the cabin Raze kept us in. Nothing like...this.
We’re standing in a living room with high ceilings and a wraparound sectional couch. The walls are painted in a soft, light gray and accented with tasteful black and white decor. Pops of color are scattered all around—from the blue throw pillows to the purple abstract painting hanging on the wall. Even though there aren’t any natural light sources, the home still feels open and airy.
There’s a hallway to our left that I assume leads to a kitchen and dining room, based on the small sliver of a table and chairs that I can see. An open staircase takes up the wall on the right.
Quinn confirms my suspicions about the kitchen when she jabs her finger in that direction and says, “Kitchen, dining, and bath are over there. Bedrooms are up there.” She swivels her body and points to the staircase. “You can draw straws or something to decide who gets what room. They’re all open on that floor.”
She sends us upstairs, muttering something about having to talk to someone, and we take the opportunity to get away from her thorny attitude and tour our new home.
Four bedrooms and a full bathroom make up the upper level of the two-story home. It feels like a mansion compared to what we’ve been living in. Beatrix and Ava volunteered to share the largest master bedroom, which has two separate full-size beds and matching dressers. Jonah agreed to take the room beside it, leaving me to stay in the room down the hall, across from the empty one.
“I’m sorry you got stuck all alone,” Ava says guiltily, following me through the hall as I drag my feet toward my new space.
The full-size bed takes up most of the floor space, leaving almost no room for a dresser. The closet door hits the end of the bed when I open it and hardly has room for me to stand inside with my hands at my sides. Not that it matters, anyway. I don’t have any of my belongings.
I have to pause to check myself mentally.
This is a roof over our heads. We have heat, food, blankets...indoor plumbing. It’s far more than any of us had a week ago, and it’s better than we could have hoped for when we were crammed in Raze’s tiny cabin.
“I’ll be okay,” I tell her. When it’s clear she doesn’t believe me, I force a smile. “Seriously, I’ll be fine.”
She leans her shoulder against the door jamb and crosses her arms. “You can always bunk with us if you get lonely.”
Falling onto my new bed, I release a sigh. “Thank you. It means a lot. All your support means so much.”
“We’re in this together,” she says with a tight smile.
I nod my agreement. “That we are. How have you been?”
She puffs her cheeks and blows out a breath that makes the stray hairs floating around her hairline dance across her forehead. The whole thing is so normal , it feels odd. “It’s hard. All of this is like a bad nightmare, you know? Like, when am I going to finally wake up?”
“I’m sorry I got you wrapped up in all of it,” I mumble as the weight of my guilt threatens to crush my chest.
Ava steps forward, dropping onto the bed beside me. “Hey, don’t do that. None of this is your fault.”
“Isn’t it? I stole the journals and showed them to you. I slept with Raze...” I play with a loose string on the comforter to avoid eye contact with her. We’ve hardly scratched the surface with Raze. There’s so much to tell them, and we’re constantly being thrown from one situation to the next. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for girl talk. “I know you’re mad at me for not telling you about the new gifts.”
“Honestly, your weird relationship with him is probably the only reason we’re alive right now, so I can’t fault you for that. Plus, look at him.” She licks her lips mockingly.
A laugh bubbles out of me, and she smiles.
“I was mad about the gifts because I care about you. I can tell something is changing, and I haven’t been able to figure out what it is until last night. You can’t help who your family is. It seems like regardless of us finding the journals or going into those woods, the Midnight Syndicate was going to come after you when they realized you weren’t Poppy,” she soothes.
I roll my lips between my teeth. “I’m sorry I lied to you about that.”
“I get it. You had no other choice.” She shrugs.
“Why are you being so understanding? You deserve to be angry with me.”
“It’s like Theo and Quinn said: None of those little details matter anymore. I thought they did at the moment, but I’ve realized that this is way bigger than that.” Leaning back onto the bed, she stares up at the ceiling with her hands resting on her stomach. “There’s going to be a time where people reflect on all the wrongs that are happening right now. They’re going to look at the people who fought against evil and wonder how they were so brave to stand up to higher powers without the guarantee that they would make it out alive. I do it all the time when I’m reading through history books. I wonder what it is that makes those people special when many before them were willing to lie down and take it. Now, I know the truth. There isn’t a choice when it comes to going against evil. Not when you’re truly good.”
“That’s an interesting way to look at it.”
“I think it’s true that God...the universe—whoever it is out there dictating our fates—chooses who it wants to fight the hardest battles. It’s up to us to step up to the task. I want to be one of the names they mention in recounts of what happened, even if it’s simply on a death toll.” She swallows, lifting her gaze back up to meet mine. “I want to be on the right side of history.”
“I like that.” I hate the idea of her being on the death toll, but I don’t want to give the thought any more attention and risk speaking it into existence.
Cancel, clear, delete , I think.
“As much as I hate what we’re going through, and I know I’ll probably need a lifetime of therapy to heal from all of it, I feel like I’m meant to be here. We were placed in each other’s paths for a reason. And maybe this is also a second chance for my family name. Maybe they chose to be complacent before. Maybe status and politics played a part, but I refuse. Either way, I’m proud to be fighting beside you.”
“I’m not the one you’re fighting beside,” I dismiss. “There’s a lot of people working harder than me to beat the Syndicate.”
She sits up onto her elbow. “Haven’t you been listening? You’re the final Landry legacy. The one thing that the Midnight Syndicate fears the most. They may have been plotting out the rebellion for years, but you’re the piece they needed to execute.”
“You sound like Raze,” I scoff.
“Do you remember what Matilda told us in her store that day, when she was talking about Odysseus? She said Raze was a distraction while they waited for the evil to be punished. I don’t think that was just the ramblings of a crazy woman anymore. I think she knew what was coming, and how you and Raze are connected to all of it.”
I purse my lips. “Too bad he can’t be trusted.”
“Say what you want about him, but I think he’s shown all of us exactly where his loyalty lies: with you.”
“That’s just because he knows how important my bloodline is.”
“You can keep telling yourself that?—”
“What’s going on in here?” Beatrix and Jonah push open my door, then fall unceremoniously onto the bed between me and Ava..
“We were just talking about how we’re going to become so famous in history for all of this that one day, there will be little kids dressed up as us for Halloween,” Ava says playfully.
Jonah scrunches his nose. “I don’t think kids dress up as historical figures for Halloween. Kids like fun stuff like cartoon characters and animals.”
Beatrix shakes her head, a smile creeping in when she sees Ava’s cheeks darken. “Ava was probably a little librarian,” she teases.
Ava shrugs as she huffs out an irritated breath. “You’re going to sit here and try to tell me Peter Parker is cooler than a real-life librarian badass?!”
“To a kid? Probably,” Jonah playfully rebukes.
“You’re such a history nerd.” Beatrix throws a pillow at Ava’s head.
“I bet you made the cutest archivist,” I giggle.
She crosses her arms over her chest and nods. “Damn right, I did.”