Chapter 33 Ares
ARES
Disorientation clouded my mind as I woke. It took a few heartbeats to remember where I was. The Carlyle. Ember’s room. I turned over in bed, expecting to find her next to me, where I’d left her last night, but she was gone.
I glanced at the clock. It was only six, but if she was up, I should be up. My muscles felt heavy and overused as I pushed out of bed, dragging my hand over my face. I didn’t bother with clothes. Ember had two robes that hung on hooks in her bathroom; I’d seen them last night. One was missing.
I took the one that was left, a silk, floor length number in aubergine, with a beautiful print of chrysanthemums. I wondered if she knew they stood for comfort in times of grief. If that was why she’d chosen this robe, to wrap comfort around her lonely heart.
If the previous night had taught me anything, it was that Ember Verona was as lonely as I was—probably lonelier.
She thought everyone would leave her. Trusted no one to want her, or to stay.
As I wrapped her robe tightly around my waist, the resolve within me strengthened. I wouldn’t be the one to walk away.
It was all right if she decided she didn’t want this or couldn’t do it.
But I wasn’t going anywhere; I’d meant what I’d said to her.
I’d wanted this for longer than I’d previously been able to admit.
Now that I had even the smallest taste of what it might be like to have her for real, to truly partner with her, I wasn’t going to give up my place by her side easily.
I padded down the hallway, making my way towards the office, where I could hear voices. From the snippets of conversation that I could make out, it was obvious that everyone already knew about the Rosewood, what we’d found at Cromvale’s apartment, and how we planned to disable the spirit traps.
I made a detour and headed for the kitchen. This wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have without coffee. Briony found me a few minutes later, as I finished pulling espresso shots.
“Hey,” she said, so casual it was difficult to conjure up images of the way I’d found her.
The teenager wore an oversized sweatsuit with a label I recognized as an expensive clothing brand, which meant that she’d been allowed to shop.
Or that someone had shopped for her. Rhiannon, if I had to guess.
Her dark hair was pulled up into a messy knot atop her head, and she wore big fluffy slippers and a pair of glasses.
I watched as she poured herself a cup of coffee, dumped a shitload of milk and creamer into it, and then topped it with whipped cream from a bowl she pulled out of the fridge.
Stanley trailed behind her, once again in tomcat form.
He hissed once at me as he passed, but Briony hushed him, almost absentminded as she went about her business.
“Do you like it here?” I asked when she’d finished dumping chocolate sprinkles onto her whipped cream topping. There was enough sugar in the concoction to make my teeth ache, just looking at it.
She glanced up at me. “Yeah. I like the Maere. I’m excited to ascend… eventually.”
I nodded. “And has anyone talked to you about what happens next?”
Briony sighed, like I was the most annoying person in the world to her. “Ares, get to the point, please.”
I suppressed a laugh. This child did fit in with the Maere. But better than that, she seemed to be doing all right, despite all she’d been through. I needed to make sure she was okay, but I sensed asking outright might not be the move. “Do you want to stay with them? Do they want you to stay?”
She gave me an odd look, like my questions were ridiculous. “Yes. Ember asked me to stay the first night. They’ve all said I can live with them… wherever they go next.”
Briony walked out of the kitchen. I grabbed my mug and followed her. “Wherever they go next?”
The teenager shrugged as she wandered back into the office. “Ask them yourself.”
“Are you planning to move?” I asked as Briony took a seat on a couch next to a giant pinboard and Ember.
Clearly, plans were being made for a few different things. Lara sat on a matching leather chesterfield, directly opposite them. No one else was in the office.
Ember smiled at me, her cheeks flushing a little as she took in what I was wearing. “It’s a possibility. Given what we’ve learned about the cult of Chiore, combined with some other factors… it feels like leaving official Consulate ground might be wise.”
I nodded, glancing at the pinboard. There was an entire column devoted to the island, a group of missing Maere, and the mysterious “Mother.” I knew what part she’d played in all this, so far, but…“Who is Mother?”
Lara took a big deep breath, but Briony was the one who answered.
“We don’t know. She’s portrayed herself as a Consulate plant inside the Authority.
Ember thinks she might be one of the missing Maere.
They elected to leave the island, rather than remaining trapped there for eternity or reincarnating as guardians. ”
“Okay,” I said slowly, unsure why Briony was answering me.
But Ember simply smiled and nodded. She was obviously proud of Briony for having absorbed so much of what was happening.
Seeing her with the girl softened something inside me, much as it seemed to have softened her.
Ember liked being a mentor. That much was clear.
Lara sat back, watching Briony carefully, as though assessing something about what she had said. Her posture was relaxed, but her expression was avid. Something bothered her.
Finally, she spoke, leaning forward to place her elbows on her knees, her chin resting in her hands as she stared at the board.
“I don’t think Mother is the one who stole the swords—I mean, I know that we suspect the Chiorics were the ones who orchestrated that, but I don’t think Mother is affiliated with them. ”
I sipped my coffee, nodding to show that I understood. But from the way Ember and Briony had perked up, this wasn’t information they’d already discussed. Lara was simply continuing the discussion.
It was comfortable the way they’d accepted that I was a part of this now. I didn’t even mind that we’d gotten off topic, and no one had explained to me if they were planning to move out of this place.
Lara got up and took a big piece of paper from the printer by the windows.
She pinned it to an empty spot on the pinboard.
It was the same web of dates as what Ember and I had found the night before.
But now, the dates had labels. I set my mug down on the coffee table and went to look at what she’d produced.
A few dates were crossed out, like the ones Ember had recognized as thwarted plans.
Those had been labeled with both the perpetrator that Lara had eliminated, along with their intended victim, and whether they were alive or dead at this juncture.
Everything else was a dizzying array of parapsych murders, but quite a few dates were empty.
“We’re calling this web of atrocities Project Hierophant,” Lara said. I liked the name. It fit. She tapped one of the empty dates. “These have to be events like stealing our swords.”
From the couch, Briony added, “Rhi went back to the Library of Amarante to look for information on the Chiorics.” She pulled a laptop out from under the couch and started typing quickly as she read the dates off the pinboard.
I had no idea what she was doing, but the child was something of a genius with her computer.
I crossed my arms, staring at the pinboard for a little longer, willing some hidden piece of things to appear so that I could make an equal contribution. Behind me, Ember whispered, “I like your robe.”
A laugh bubbled up from deep inside me. I turned to wink at her, but one of the more recent dates on the pinboard caught my eye. It was six months ago, and it seemed familiar.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, rushing back to Ember’s bedroom to get my phone.
When I returned, I keyed in several codes to reach my calendar, scrolling back several months until I found the date. Sure enough, it matched. I set my phone down on the coffee table and thought hard. The women were quiet, clearly waiting for me to finish thinking.
“On this day, I met with an antiquities dealer in Midtown.” My jaw clenched as I struggled to regain as much of the memory as I could.
“Poor guy had an infestation of Poltergeists, attracted to objects that hadn’t been properly cleared for sale.
” This was the part I was struggling with, though.
It had been nothing to me at the time. “A man came in, plain, unremarkable in nearly every way… like Fairchild. He asked after something called a thry—”
“A thrysos?” Lara asked, her expression dark.
Ember gasped. “Surely not.”
I shrugged. “That might have been it. I can’t remember.
The only reason I paid any attention was that the shop owner stopped speaking to me, and shook his head at the attendant who helped the man.
When his attention returned to me, he was visibly upset, and asked if we could take our conversation to his office. ”
I paused again, remembering the rest. “When I left, the man was gone, but so was the attendant. I honestly just thought they didn’t have whatever it was the guy was looking for.”
Lara stood, taking up a footpath across the room, pacing. Briony watched, then turned her attention to Ember, expectation clear on her face. The teenager wanted an explanation.
Ember seemed to respond to her, patting her hand before answering. “The thrysos has been depicted in many different ways. Some say that Chiore carries one. That it is a weapon, a staff of sorts, that can kill a god… Or one of the Maere.”