Chapter 27
ARES
The Automat was empty, but for the spirits.
Dozens of flickering fluorescents gave off an erratic buzz that set my teeth on edge.
The mac’n’cheese wasn’t nearly as good as mine, but it was decent enough.
When I arrived, the spirits had congratulated me—on finding the Angel, on rescuing the child.
It was odd. They seemed almost singularly interested in the two of them, and once they’d confirmed that those tasks had been taken care of, they lost interest in me completely.
In fact, they’d lost interest in almost everything.
It was as though they were all tired. But that was impossible.
Fatigue was for the living. The dead never tired.
When Eli Cabot pushed through the door, his mood dark as the thunderstorm brewing in the late afternoon air, the Automat’s spirits simply left.
That was the funny thing about the Thaumas—spirits were naturally repelled by them, even when they were as serious as Eli. Avaline always joked that Eli was the only one of the Thaumas that truly belonged with us. In many ways, she was right. Most thaumaturges had a sunnier outlook than he did.
Today, the big miracle worker wore jeans, work boots, and a fisherman’s sweater. He hadn’t bothered with a coat, because apparently rain hardly dared touch him. His perfectly tousled brown hair wasn’t even wet. He didn’t get anything to eat, but sat down across from me with a scowl on his face.
“What now?” he demanded. “I thought we were done.”
I raised an eyebrow and got right to the point. “I know you know something you’re not telling me. What has Lux told you?”
Eli’s square jaw tightened. He was the kind of handsome that the Authority loved.
Clean cut, dependable. Even his grumpy demeanor was something they ate up.
He was what humans considered “classically handsome”—and when we were young, he used that advantage to protect both Lux and I when he could. It’s what had bonded us as children.
And he was the reason, I was certain of it, that Roman Necroline had found Eryx and I in the nick of time, though Eli had never admitted to performing a miracle for us.
I kept eating my mac’n’cheese while Eli decided what to tell me and what to keep back.
I hated asking him for this information now.
But after having been to the island—after understanding more about who we were, what we were…
I was more determined than ever to help Orphium’s Maere regain their swords and their power.
Too many forces were coalescing against us.
It felt as though a storm was coming for this city.
We needed our protectors to do what they did best, with all the tools at their disposal.
Eli and I always seemed to follow the same train of thought.
He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest.
“There’s other players on the board,” he said, finally. “Lux can’t see who, but they are connected somehow. Standing between you and what you want.”
“The swords?” I asked point blank. There was no need to dance around things. Eli wouldn’t rat me out.
He shrugged. “It’s more than that, but yeah.”
“What’s that mean?” I snapped back.
He shrugged. “If you wanted to know what Lux knows, you should’ve talked to her.”
I sighed. That much was true. But if the Maere were being set up, the Cognoscenti were being watched. There was no doubt in my mind about that. “Thanks, anyway… it was worth the ask.”
I went back to my food. There was more. I knew there was more. Lux wouldn’t have sent him without what I needed. Whether Eli was being difficult for a reason, or because he was an insufferable crosspatch, I’d never know.
He slid a piece of paper across the table. It was an address uptown, and a name. I raised an eyebrow. “This one’s awfully high up in the Authority.”
Eli shook his head. “Don’t dig into this, man.”
“Has Lux seen something?” I asked. I needed to know if there was something to be suspicious of.
He sighed. “No. The road goes dark after I give this to you. Whatever happens next is Saints-touched.”
Not Saints-touched. Gods-touched. The Saints were gods.
My heart nearly stilled as I contemplated the multi-faceted idea of truth in all its myriad forms. Did it matter that the Saints were gods? From some angles, yes. In others, no. Pulling apart these kinds of knots was tricky, especially when it came to visions.
Typically, a Seer as powerful as Lux Medios saw infinite possibilities if fate hadn’t been decided yet. Or what they saw changed rapidly, moving too fast or too erratically to read. If the road went dark—well, there were a lot of interpretations for that.
Some thought it meant Fate herself had intervened. Others thought it meant the Saints had drawn a curtain over the rest to let Fate sort herself out in private. But it was not good. It meant that whatever this was, it was as big as I feared it might be.
Eli stood. “I hope I see you alive again, Ares.”
His words were ominous, but they were pure Eli.
The man was nothing if not a pessimistic optimist. And then he was gone.
I stared at the address for a long moment, before calling my snitch in the notorious building’s security.
I smiled as the information I wanted came through, then texted Ember the address, asking her to meet me there.
We could search the Senator’s apartment together.