by Laney McMann
“I am confused, Cato. Are you afraid she will kill us or that you are not able to run experimental tests on her?”
The man didn’t answer. “If you could wait here, we will call you in the morning when we are ready.”
Caelius stared into a six by six room—a cell. It had come to him being cast into a prison cell by way of protecting the innocent. With a shake of his head, he took in the crystal walls with views to the infinite cosmos beyond. Stunning or not, it was still jail.
“You are making a mistake, Cato. I feel it must be noted that if you do not hear me out, your error may be grave. Something bigger than this is upon us. Have you not felt it?”
Elder Cato stared at him like he was insane. “It will do you no good to try and distract me from what is at play.”
With all the dignity he could muster, Caelius walked into the cell.
“Unlike you who have preferred to live among humans, who have clearly done little but make you soft, I do not make errors,” Cato snapped. “Since you have allowed the girl to run, you have forced the Eldership’s hand. We will find her, Caelius. We will find her, and we will find whoever is helping her elude us, as well.” The door clanked shut and locked.
Turning, the Warden placed his fingers against his throat, over his wings, and tapped them three times.
“Where the hell are we going, Danny?” Giselle whispered as they descended the long hallway of the underground bunker of the Brotherhood.
“Just pack some stuff,” he answered, as they entered the small apartment. “Whatever you need for a while. And call Lindsey. I’m guessing you want her to come?” He tracked into the Kade’s room.
“Come where?”
Danny checked underneath Kade’s bed, shook out the comforter, and walked into the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” Giselle hissed. “And answer me!”
He turned to find her with her hands on her hips, dark circles coloring the wells of her eyes. She looked sick. “Looking for clues. You heard Plumb, we have to find Cole.”
“Hell, yes, I heard her, and I also saw the look in your eye when you said we’d find him.” She tilted her head to the side in her accusing way that had been ingrained into Danny’s memory. “We’re not bringing him back here.” It wasn’t a question.
“I’m not stupid, G.” He grinned and pushed past her into the bedroom, checking in the closet. Most of Kade’s clothes were gone. “There’s no way in hell we’re bringing him back. Or Kade. We’re going to help. In whatever way we can.”
She gave a curt nod and walked toward her room. “So, pack everything I own—that’s what you’re saying.” She hauled her massive suitcase from underneath her bed and threw it open.
Danny heaved a breath. “That’s what I’m saying.”
Giselle removed her phone from her pocket and typed something across the lit up screen. “We have to pick up Lindsey in how long?” She glanced over at her brother.
“Fifteen minutes. Tops.”
Giselle set her phone down. “Maybe she shouldn’t come with us. She’s still not fully recovered from when the mine collapsed on her.”
Danny shrugged. “Your call.” He rotated his hands around in a circle. “Speed it up?”
“Aren’t you packing any clothes?”
“Nope.” He crossed his arms over his chest, antsy and ready to leave. “No way am I chancing running into Plumb again and going to my dorm room. I don’t lie well.”
Giselle rolled her eyes and typed a few letters into her phone before tossing it on the bed. “I know. You used to get us in such trouble with Mom.” She walked into her bathroom, snatched up all her toiletries, shoved them in a bag, and threw them in her suitcase.
“Mom had some kind of lie sonar.”
Giselle laughed.
“You’re carrying that big ass thing when we go through the Leygate,” Danny said, eyeing the massive suitcase. “Might want to downsize.”
Giselle glanced at it, huffed, and dug in the closet, retrieving a large backpack. “If I run out of clothes, you’re buying me new stuff.”
Danny shrugged. “I have to buy stuff for myself anyway. Just come on.”
“No one is at the door to stop us from leaving, Dan, I’m coming.” She shoved a few pairs of jeans, some shirts and a jacket into the backpack and threw it over one shoulder.
“That doesn’t mean someone couldn’t come to the door.”
“Good, god, you’re annoying.”
It took forever to settle down once Kade and Cole were back in Heru’s villa in Verona.
The gargoyle’s words kept repeating in her thoughts.
“You look like him. We know the stories—all of us know,” he’d said. “What you were. What you now are. Some didn’t believe, some still don’t, but I see it.”
“She looks like who?” Cole asked.
“Her custos,” it rasped.
Cole’s hand tightened around the gargoyle’s throat, its eyes bulging. “What did you say?”
“The Keeper,” it breathed a shallow breath. “Her … father.”
Kade shuddered.
“Hey, you okay?” Cole wrapped his arm around her. “You cold?”
She shook her head. “Not from the weather.” She looked up at him. “My dad, he isn’t …”
“We don’t know that for sure.” He touched her cheek. “We don’t. The gurgulio was repeating what he believed—it doesn’t make it fact.”
She inhaled a breath. “Right.”
He shrugged his jacket off. “Come on, just lay down. It’s late. We’re both tired. Tomorrow we’ll dig deeper if we can.” He led her to the bed in her room, and she crawled in, jeans, jacket, and all. Cole lay beside her, facing her, an arm over her hip.
“What if it’s true,” she whispered, staring at him in the dark. With every blink, his eyes glittered like tiny lights back at her.
“Then we’ll go from there.” He kissed her forehead, before resting his head against hers. “We’ll just go from there.”
Kissing his lips, she sat up, shrugging off her jacket and her jeans, and laid back down, scooting her body close to Cole’s. He wrapped her in his arms. “I thought you couldn’t sleep with your jeans on?” she said, her face snuggled against his chest. He was so warm and the scent of laundry and fire eased her nerves.
“I’m not planning on sleeping.” He pulled his fingers through her long hair.
Kade considered responding with a smart remark but couldn’t get the words out. Instead, she only tugged him closer, balling the fabric of his shirt in her hands, knowing what his words meant. He’d be keeping watch, just like all the other times he’d kept watch over her, knowing she was being tracked—that likely they both were now. His entire body was tense. She knew that well, too. Their little oasis had been infiltrated in less than twenty-four hours.
The wings on the side of Cole’s throat fluttered. Once, twice, three times. He shot up out of bed with his hand on his neck.
“What’s wrong?” Kade slurred, half asleep, reaching across the bed for him.
“Heru’s coming. Oh, shit.” Cole scrambled around the room picking up his jacket off the floor so fast, he was surprised his red corona wasn’t tracking his wake.
“Now?”
“Yes, now.” He blew her a kiss and darted toward the bedroom door, wrenched it open, and was across the hall and in his own room in seconds. He heard the front door unlock and creak open downstairs.
Immediately he laid down on his cold, neatly made bed and closed his eyes. Playing house with Kade had been so nice—even with the gargoyle tracker—he’d almost forgotten they were both only seventeen. The front door closed, and Cole heard Heru’s footsteps on the first floor. He checked the clock on the night stand. 2:42 AM. Not the best of signs if Heru was coming back in the middle of the night. Rolling onto his side, Cole eyed Kade’s bedroom door through the crack in his, and got out of bed. Silently opening his door, he vanished down the steps.
“Heru?” His footsteps t
racked across the cold stone floor and into the brightly lit kitchen. His uncle was digging in the refrigerator.
“Did ya eat all the food?” The dark-skinned man stood, a twinkle in his bright blue eyes.
Cole grinned. He had missed him. Being alone with Kade had been great, incredible, but Cole had always been close to his uncle. More so since his dad had passed away. “We ate out,” he said. “Kade wanted to see Verona.”
“I’m sure ya were happy to oblige her.” Heru leaned against the stone counter, a bright red and orange backsplash of hand-painted tiles lined the wall over the sink behind him. “Good to be back in Italy?”
“Yeah, it has been, actually. A good break. What are you doing here at,” Cole checked the clock near the ancient-looking stove, “2:46 in the morning? Lucky I didn’t come down the stairs swinging a bat.”
Heru smiled. “Ya felt my call.”
“Luckily. I was asleep.”
Heru waved a hand in the air. “With yar Anamolia here?” He grinned wider. “I doubt that. I was seventeen once, too.”
Cole crossed his arms over his chest without responding. “What’s going on? Did the Eldership free the Warden? You find who you were hunting?” He walked to the pantry and opened it, revealing a bag of potato chips. He handed them to his uncle. “Here. Your favorite.”
The man took the bag like a five year old would take candy, eyes wide with glee. “Thank ya.” He popped a chip into his mouth and said, “No.”
“No?”
“No, they didn’t free yar grandfather.” He ate another chip. “I’ve been starving. There’s never anything good to eat on the road.” He shoved more chips in his mouth and crunched down. “The reason I’m here,” he said with a mouthful, “and at such a late hour, is because ya’re being watched. Ya and Kadence.”
“I know.”
“Good.” Heru wiped a greasy hand on the side of his pants. “Does the girl know, as well?”
“Someone was here earlier, a few hours ago. Outside. Gurgulio.” Cole let out a breath. “I got some interesting information out of him. Kade knows.”
“And when were ya going to say something to me? When ya ran out of food and needed more money?”
“It’s only been a couple of hours.” Cole shrugged.
“Well, ya must have fallen asleep then. He is on the riverwalk as we speak.”
“And I let him go, too. Won’t make that mistake twice.”
“I am sure this tracker is a new one. More will come.”
Cole nodded. “Do you know how the Warden is?”
“I couldn’t say. I’ve no clearance to ask questions, ya know, and it isn’t as if I can call your Lead, Plumb, and ask her. She would ask questions. Perhaps about yar whereabouts, no doubt.” He tipped the bag up, pouring chips into his mouth.
“You don’t need to ask anyone at the Ward or ask Plumb to answer your questions,” Cole countered.
“The Warden is doing okay,” his uncle said, holding Cole’s concerned stare. “He is being kept in a cell, though, something I am sure he is not enjoying. He contacted me a little while ago.”
“A cell?” Cole said it a little too loud. “Why?”
“He’s going to trial. Aiding and abetting, remember?”
“Yeah, but it’s, he’s—“
“Not untouchable. None of us are. So, with that in mind,” he set the empty bag of chips on the counter and clapped his hands together, “and the gentleman who seems quite determined to watch my home and ya and the Anamolia, I find that we must be off soon. I have received word from my contacts in Great Britain that Skellig Michael in Ireland has been hit.”
“Daemoneum.” Cole let out a breath. “The Warden alerted governments worldwide that monuments and megalithic structures might be in danger.”
“Looks like he was correct. From what I’ve been told, the attack came from the Leylines underground.”
“Araneum?”
“We’re not sure yet. It’s being looked into.”
“Is the structure still standing? Skellig Michael is just an old monastery.”
Heru shrugged. “I’m not sure. The site has already seen a lot of damage over the years. Sounds like it got hit and the Daemoneum moved on. Go pack.”
Cole turned to leave, but stopped. “The gargoyle that was following us, it said Kade’s dad was still alive. Uncle, whatever. That he survived.”
“Did it, now?” Heru’s brows raised.
“Yeah. Did you hear anything from grandfather about that subject?”
“Ya. The Principals investigating the sewer lines found nothing.”
“Nothing?” Cole's eyes screwed up. “What?”
“There was nothing there,” Heru said. “No Nefarius. No Leylines.”
“That's not possible.”
Heru shrugged.
“That’s it? All I get is a shrug?”
“For now all ya get is a shrug.”
Cole eyed him. Hanging out with his uncle was a battle of wills, and Heru always won. He turned his head at the sound of footsteps.
Kade stood in the doorway to the kitchen, hands on her gorgeous hips. Cole wanted to throw a robe around her and shoo her back up the stairs.
“Good evening, Kadence,” Heru said with a smile. “It is convenient that ya’re awake.”
“I heard,” she said with force in her words, eyeing Cole. “That guy is still outside and you didn’t tell me?”
Cole went to her, putting a hand around her waist. “I didn’t know—fell asleep. Sorry. He can’t get in the villa.”
“True,” Heru said. “But unfortunately, he can sit outside of it and make it difficult for ya to leave. Nuisance, trackers are.”
“So, where are we going?” Kade pouted.
Cole knew she liked it there, just the two of them. He had, too. He glanced at Heru.
His uncle patted his coat pocket and withdrew three tickets. “Fondazione Arena di Verona.”
Kade smiled, but Cole groaned. “The opera?”
“The opera,” Heru conceded, pushing away from the kitchen counter. “It’s tomorrow night. Well, tonight, I should say, as it is after three in the morning. We leave Verona after the festivities.”
“I’m confused. Not complaining—I’d love to go, but why?”
“Because there will be hundreds of people at the opera,” Cole said, “which makes us harder to track once we leave the villa and head to our next location.”
“Exactly, my smart boy.” Heru patted Cole. “Can’t stay here now the Daemoneum know where ya are. It is time the hunted turn into the hunters.” He left the kitchen and went upstairs.
Kade’s face glowed as she looked up at Cole with her yellow-green eyes. “I’ve always wanted to go to an opera.”
“You think Heru will notice if I don’t go to my room?” He kissed her, hand sliding down her bare thigh.
“Ya, Heru will notice,” the man shouted from the top of the stairs.
“Fine.” He reached for Kade’s hand and led her up the steps. “Leave your door open,” he whispered.
“Okay.” She pushed up on her toes, kissed him quickly, and went into her room.
Cole opened his door all the way and lay in his bed. Even in the pitch dark, he could see the light in Kade’s eyes shining at him from across the hallway. He watched her in silence, every blink somehow illuminating the darkness between them and warming his heart. No one was more beautiful than she was.
Chapter 19
There was no shopping for the opera, due to Kade being on basic house arrest. She was partly relieved and partly disappointed. Heru had simply asked all of her sizes and gone out with Cole, leaving her alone in the villa. No one could get inside, he assured her, and as Heru put it, “Maybe we’ll get lucky when they see it’s only Cole and me. Daemoneum aren’t all that smart, not trackers at any rate. They could assume we sent you back to Colorado after last night’s scare.”
Kade knew he was trying to make her less anxious. No one in their right mind would send K
ade anywhere alone, not with Warden Caelius gone, and she was positive the Daemoneum would know he was gone.
So while she waited for them to return, she packed her suitcase, gathering all of her belongings from the bathroom in the villa. She was sad to go. The last twenty-four hours had been some of the best of her life, even with the gargoyle. Reaching across the bathtub to retrieve her shampoo, she stopped, her hand in frozen in midair, as she stared at the lines crawling over her palm. They were white. The exact same shade as the lightning scars on Cole’s back.
Slowly, she backed up and leaned against the bathroom wall with an unsteady sway. She wanted to yell Cole’s name, but he wasn’t at the villa. Instinctively, she touched the side of her throat. Her fingers traced the scar on her neck where her sparrow wings had once been, Cole had told her, from when she was born a Primori. Giselle had said it, too. The wings all Primordial had, a product of their true avian selves.
No wings were visible on her throat anymore—she didn’t remember them—only the slight raised flesh confirmed where they once were—confirmed what she once was. Kade had seen Cole tap his wings before they’d left for Verona. It was how he’d communicated with Heru. Staring at the white marks on her palm, she tapped the side of her neck with her fingers and hoped.
Nothing happened. Sliding down to the floor, she sat on the cold tile. Cole would return soon, she told herself. Nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all.
The sound of the door unlocking downstairs jarred Kade to her feet from the bathroom floor. She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there, staring into nothing. With a sweeping flood of relief, she ran out of her room and skipped down the steps at a run, but stopped short at seeing Heru in the entryway without Cole. He held a long white bag on a hanger.
“We had to separate,” he said with no touch of distress in his tone, but likely seeing the disappointment in her expression. “Cole will be here soon. I believe he took a more … scenic route.” He winked, blues eyes twinkling.