Chapter 22
EMBER
Though I sensed the Poltergeist, I could not see it clearly.
But I heard its purrs, and Briony smiled as she pet the spirit.
The confrontation with the Necrolines had been tense.
I was glad Avaline was back. Her personality was a delightful mix of cheer and lethal acuity, and it tempered the brothers somewhat.
I liked the way she smoothed things over.
Eryx got up, leaving his seat for Avaline. “I have to get to the gym today, or our people will suspect something’s up.”
“Can I come?” Lara asked.
Eryx shrugged. “Sure. Ready in five?”
They left the kitchen. Ares settled back into his seat and Rhiannon left to pick up the pastries. We were left with Briony and Avaline, who stared longingly at Eryx’s empty latte mug. I smiled at the girl. Avaline was only forty, barely out of her teenage years by immortal standards.
Avaline watched for a moment as I made it clear I was going to make her a latte of her own, then launched into what she’d learned over her past few days of surveillance.
“The spirits told me something odd about the guardians in the traps…” she began, her delicate brow wrinkling as she looked at Briony.
I turned from measuring out beans to look over my shoulder. “They say they are Maere who didn’t ascend.”
Briony’s jaw tightened, but she did not flinch. The girl was stronger than I thought. Ares had argued against telling her the truth of things, but the three of us had vehemently disagreed. To be one of us and not break meant developing a very thick skin early on.
The way Rhi, Lara, and I saw it, the girl had a head start on things.
She had years to understand the way things would be when she ascended—and she had us.
She wasn’t alone with the heightened senses and lightning fast healing, the dreams of the island, the strange occurrences that grew increasingly difficult to explain.
Briony would know who she was, and why those things happened to her. And she would be freer for it. Those dead girls hadn’t had the same luck, and very likely, that’s what got them killed.
Avaline breathed a sigh of relief. “So you know then.”
I nodded. “Yes. I am sorry we didn’t tell you.”
Avaline grinned. “Actually, I’m glad you didn’t. If I’d known, I would have gone in differently, and I think I may have learned more this way.”
She waited while I finished making her drink. Rhiannon returned from Delicia’s with pastries, and Ares made a pot of tea. When we were settled once more, and Briony munched happily on a croissant nearly the size of her head, Avaline continued.
“So, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the guardians are not helping willingly. If we can disable the spirit traps, we’ll be able to take the swords without a problem. In fact, I think they’ll help us.”
Rhiannon nodded. “Were you able to speak with them?”
Avaline shook her head. “No, the traps don’t allow for that, but the other spirits can hear their thoughts, and enough of them told me similar things that I believe this to be true.”
Ares glanced at me. “Spirits have a difficult time lying to Avaline. Most of the time, they simply don’t want to. They like her. But the ones who don’t… they still struggle to manage it.”
The young medium nodded. “That’s true. It’s because I can trap them.”
“What?” I breathed.
Ares’ mouth quirked up at the corner as Avaline answered. “Oh, I am a living spirit trap. That’s why they’re so attracted to me. Why they do what I say. It’s not just my sparkling personality.”
“That’s incredible,” Rhi said, her eyes shining with admiration.
“It sounds sad to me,” Briony added between mouthfuls of croissant.
Avaline smiled at them both. “It is. I never know if they like me for me, or because of what I am.”
Briony glanced down at Stanley, seeming to listen for a long moment. “He genuinely likes you.”
Avaline’s smile widened, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. “That is very nice to know. Thank you, Briony.” She didn’t ask how Briony knew—she simply trusted the child. Avaline Reyes was singular. A ray of sunshine in a raincloud’s package. I understood why Ares liked her so much.
“So,” I said, breaking the syrupy sweetness of the moment. “It sounds like we’ll need to find a way to disable the spirit traps.”
Avaline nodded. “Trouble is doing it without hurting the girls.”
Ares drew a sharp breath in. “Destroying a spirit trap annihilates the souls.”
That was always the problem with spirit traps, and precisely why whoever was baiting us had done this.
They knew we wouldn’t just pull a smash and grab.
They knew full well that we could pull off the heist with raw strength and speed, but that to do it we’d have to eradicate our sistren from not only the planet, but existence.
That we’d be forced to destroy their souls—and that we wouldn’t.
Whoever was behind all this knew about the island.
Knew the truth of our origins. It was a disturbing thought.
There hadn’t been an unaffiliated Maere in the territories for eons.
A vague suspicion grew in my mind, stress chewing at my stomach.
I’d avoided making contact for so long… but it might be time.
“We’ll have to find a way to disable the spirit traps,” I said slowly.
Ares nodded, standing. “I have a contact who may be able to help us.”
Rhiannon smiled, serene as always. “As do I. Will you be all right without me?”
I nodded. Hex boxes, spirit traps, the Ceti, and Fairchild’s weird mission, all coming out of the woodwork at the same time that our swords went up for auction…
I had things I wanted to look into without all of them around, and Avaline had been up all night.
She would need sleep soon. Briony, for her part, looked exhausted from her short time up.
“Do you want to get back in bed?” I asked the child as Avaline yawned.
She nodded. “Would Stanley come with me?”
Avaline smiled at her. “If you ask him kindly, I think he would.”
Briony slid off her stool and crouched on the ground, whispering to the ghost cat. She smiled. “He says he will come with me.”
Avaline held out a hand to her and the three of them left the kitchen, Ares following close behind.
Rhiannon’s eyes locked on mine. “Be careful poking around.”
I nodded. So we were on the same wavelength. It was time to make the call I’d been dreading. I wondered if she knew more than she was saying from her time at the Consulate. “Anything I should watch out for?”
Slowly, she shook her head. “Nothing we haven’t watched out for a thousand times. If all this is connected to the island, all bets are off.”
As she left the kitchen, the vise around my heart tightened. All bets are off. That’s exactly what I was afraid of.
When everyone had gotten off to where they needed to be, I went to my bedroom and shut the door, curling up in the back of my closet on the floor. I took several deep breaths before sliding open the panel behind my evening-wear.
There was no getting around this. I chided myself with the fact that I should’ve done this the second I saw the spirit traps, and if not then, when I realized what Briony was.
At this point, it wasn’t wise to proceed on our own.
The Authority had gone too far, though of course, it could be the Consulate. Or even some new threat.
The point was that there were too many possibilities to keep this to ourselves any longer. I dialed the number I’d had memorized for nearly fifty years, my breath stalling in my throat as the phone rang and rang. When it had rung more times than I could count, I sighed, about to give up.
“Hello?” a voice said at the other end of the line, sounding tinny and faraway.
I gave my identifying data, though of course, the island knew exactly where the call was coming from. When the answering voice gave me the go ahead, my voice went weak.
“We have a problem,” I whispered.
“You’re not supposed to call this number unless it is an emergency,” the faraway voice replied. “It is not time for your check-in.”
“This is an emergency,” I replied, my heart racing. “Or at least it’s going to turn into one if someone doesn’t do something quickly… And there’s a child involved… One of the unascended. I thought she’d want to know.”
There was a long silence. So long I thought I might have lost them.
“Hold, please. I’ll transfer you to the top.”