End Game (The Foundling Series)

by Hailey Edwards

  “We need to get back to the farmhouse. There’s not enough evidence here to tell us who is responsible beyond the shadow of a doubt, but there’s enough to make me nervous about leaving Kapoor with —” I almost named Thom before I caught myself, “— Phoebe.”

  Cole didn’t call me out on the slip, his expression tightening as he ran probabilities.

  Without another word, he changed, and the dragon cracked its tail with impatience.

  He didn’t play where his daughter was concerned, and I could respect that. I climbed on, and we returned to the farmhouse without so much as a dip, let alone a dive or roll. That didn’t help my gut unclench. When it came to aerial acrobatics, I had trust issues with the dragon.

  About the time Cole decreased his altitude, I spotted a pair of large moving trucks in front of the house.

  Portia, Maggie, and Miller were back. Good thing too. Thom might have put Kapoor under, but it didn’t mean he would stay that way. Charun biology being what it was, Thom would have to learn through trial and error how fast Kapoor processed any medications he was given since his species was unknown.

  Cole touched down, and I dismounted, happy to find my stomach contents settling after so much abuse.

  A whistle blasted through his teeth, an earsplitting summons that brought Phoebe shooting out of the house and straight toward us. She struck Cole in the center of his chest, and he staggered back while she chattered her nonsense update to us.

  Portia strode out the door next and lifted her hand in a wave. “Hey, Mom and Dad are home.”

  “Well?” Santiago bumped her out of the way. “What did you find?”

  Pretending their juvenile shoving match to see who got off the porch first wasn’t happening, I waited for an opening to check on our guest. “Kapoor still out?”

  “Yeah.” Santiago quit acting like a two-year-old and awarded me his full attention. “Thom is with him.”

  Confirmation Thom was alone with Kapoor sent my gaze zipping toward the front door. “Any word from Wu?”

  “He should be here in a few hours.”

  “So … ” Portia twisted left and dipped enough to sweep his legs out from under him while he was distracted. He dropped like a ton of bricks and came up growling, but we both ignored him. “What did we miss? What happened to Kapoor? Where did you guys come from?”

  The questions kept coming, and I couldn’t decide which to answer first. “You must have just arrived.”

  “What did you find?” Santiago repeated himself. “Talk, or I give the baby a piece of candy. The sugar will have her bouncing off the walls all night.”

  Sugar and kids don’t mix. Even I, with my limited experience, knew that much thanks to Maggie. One year, she took off the day after Halloween just to avoid the fallout from a night of parent-approved debauchery. If you considered shoving chocolate bars, lollipops, and taffy down your throat debauching.

  “Five Onca scouts are dead.” I held his gaze. “They weren’t reported missing because they weren’t expected to check in until tomorrow.”

  The playfulness drained away and left Portia sobered. “How did they die?”

  “Someone cut their throats with a long blade. My vote is a sword given how popular they are among charun.”

  “That narrows it down,” Santiago snarked. “Anything else?”

  “We need to wake up Kapoor so he can tell us what happened, but we need Wu before we try it.”

  Kapoor might come out of sedation swinging, and I would prefer Wu take the hits over us.

  “Do you think he’s responsible?” Portia shifted her weight like she might go back in to check on Thom, and I was glad not to be the only one worried about him. “Why target our allies?”

  “He’s got Onca blood under his nails.” The evidence didn’t add up yet, but we were piecing it together in fits and stops. “We don’t know that he didn’t spot them in a scuffle and lend help. That might explain why he showed up in this condition.”

  “There was a sword by the cot,” Santiago noted. “I’ve never seen him carry one. He’s more of a click-click-boom kind of guy.”

  Thanks to Kapoor’s position within the NSB, he carried a firearm at all times, but it seemed to me that all charun kept a sword or two in their closet. I had no idea it was a must-have accessory until I rejoined the coterie.

  “Cole and I will wait on Wu to arrive.” I glanced over my shoulder. “We’ll start unloading the supplies.”

  Portia picked up on the drift of my thoughts first. “What are we doing?”

  “You and Santiago are going to inform Noel and Franklin of their loss. We’ll text you the coordinates. You can help them retrieve their dead, or not. Whatever their customs demand.” I paid Santiago special attention. “Be on your best behavior. These people have suffered a loss, possibly at the hands of their allies, and we need to be respectful of that. Assure them we’re investigating the incident, but do not implicate Kapoor. Until we have more evidence, we can’t afford to risk the Oncas taking their grief out on him.”

  Checking with Cole was instinctive, but he didn’t offer his two cents. He was content to let me lead my own way, which was terrifying when you considered all the ways I could screw up if left unsupervised.

  After Santiago and Portia left in the White Horse SUV we kept stashed behind the house, I ducked my head in the front door and called, “Miller, you got a minute?”

  “Sure.” He came in from the back porch with a screwdriver in one hand and a manual in another. “I’m installing some new freezers. Thought they might come in handy. It requires some rewiring, though.”

  “That sounds great.” The kitchen wasn’t all that big, and the supplies in the truck had to go somewhere. “I wanted to ask you about your trip. Did you guys have any trouble?”

  “No.” He set aside his tool and booklet and grabbed a bottle of water. “Everyone was on their best behavior. The various clans seemed pleased we had done our research and brought them supplies that fit their dietary needs.”

  “No one was missing any scouts or civilians? Nothing like that?”

  “Now that you mention it, there was a dust up when a pregnant female couldn’t be located. She was part of a recon team, but she was on light duty until she delivered. Her mate brought it up to the elder in charge as we were leaving, so I didn’t hear the outcome. I assumed the team had been delayed, possibly by her if she needed to rest. I didn’t give it much thought past that. We had too many stops left, and no one else seemed overly concerned.”

  “Can you do me a huge favor and check in with them while Cole and I start unloading the trucks?”

  “Sure.” He wiped his hands clean. “It won’t take but a minute.”

  While he dialed them up, Cole and I got serious about tucking away our rainy-day supplies. Most of the items, I recognized. Some I had no guess as to their purpose. Others appeared to be military surplus. Overall, the boxes, cans, and jars gave me a great sense of emergency preparedness. As if I could reach into the storage building and pull out anything, like a magician doing a hat trick.

  Miller caught up to us fifteen minutes later, and he didn’t look happy.

  “The scouts never checked in.” He tapped the phone against his palm. “They sent out a search party. We ought to hear back soon.”

  “This keeps getting better and better.” I waved him off. “Get back to work. We’ll finish up out here.”

  Another thirty minutes lapsed before Wu graced us with his presence, and I drafted Miller to help Cole with the last truck while I escorted Wu to meet with Thom about Kapoor’s condition.

  Once I caught Wu up to speed, he gave the impression he would rather be anywhere other than here, leaving me to believe he must know something we didn’t — big surprise. Personally, I was stunned. Stunned, I tell you, to learn he was keeping more secrets.

  “Bring him around.” Wu dragged a hand down his face. “We owe him a chance to defend himself.”

  Ominous as that sounded, I had to agree. “Tho
m, can you wake him?”

  “Of course.” He produced a syringe I assumed was filled with another of his bodily fluids, but I didn’t ask which. In some cases, ignorance truly was bliss. “It will take a few minutes to go into effect.”

  The opportunity to grill Wu proved irresistible. “What aren’t you telling us?”

  “Kapoor spent an undetermined amount of time in Father’s presence.” Wu made it sound like exposure to his father equaled a death sentence. “Father has been known to … ”

  “Brainwash?” He startled, and at any other time I would have laughed. “The Malakhim are drones. They have no independent thought or identity. They’re a host, a mass, a thing. They’re not individuals. It stands to reason if Ezra can reduce the masses to bees working for the good of the hive, then he could do the same to Kapoor.”

  The emotions firing behind his eyes were too complex for me to single out more than the dominant one: regret.

  As with The Hole, I got the feeling Wu was continually surprised to discover the depths to which his father had sunk or was willing to sink. I wasn’t sure if he held out a child’s hope that his father could be reasoned with, that their differences could be overcome, or if it was merely a coping mechanism.

  Since I was a champion coper with multiple mechanisms to avoid tuning in to the persistent voice screaming in the back of my head that monsters existed, that I was one, that all of this was my fault, I could sympathize up to a point. But Wu had to get his ducks in a row. I wasn’t asking that he smile while we murder his father for the good of the world, but I did expect him to follow through without any of those messy, muddled emotions freezing him.

  Chagrinned by the harshness of my outlook, I checked the bangles, but they remained warmed by my skin, not chilled from Conquest’s influence. I couldn’t blame her for the ugly thought, and that was enough for me to dial back my temper where Wu was concerned. For now.

  “It’s possible,” he allowed with the enthusiasm of someone whose worst nightmare was coming true.

  “Adam,” Kapoor whispered. “Adam.”

  Shocking me with the humanity of the gesture, Wu grasped Kapoor’s hand. The prickle of energies on the back of my neck told me he was funneling some of his healing powers into Kapoor. The fact he and I were so in tune left me grinding my molars. I still experienced a disconnect when looking at him now, and not just because the bangles suppressed our mate bond. I kept seeing the Ezra he had invented rather than himself or his father. Like I needed more confusion in my life.

  “I’m here.” Wu leaned in, his voice as gentle as the grip on his friend. “What happened?”

  “Dead.” Eyes screwed tight, Kapoor sobbed, “All dead.”

  A migraine set up shop in my left temple, throbbing in time to my heart.

  “Who’s dead?” I pressed when Wu made no effort to clarify.

  “All dead.” Tears rolled down his cheeks. “I … I … killed them.”

  Slashing me with a glare, Wu tightened his grip on Kapoor. “Who did you kill?”

  “The Malakhim. They were Malakhim.” Kapoor’s eyes flung opened, black from edge to edge. “I thought … I thought … ” Confusion knit his brow. “But I was wrong.” He wet his lips. “I was trying to help. Haven was in danger. They were all in danger.” Kapoor tightened his fingers, and I heard one of Wu’s knuckles pop. “I was wrong.”

  “You killed the Onca scouts,” I said gently, “because you thought they were Malakhim.”

  “Yes,” he hissed, spittle flecking his lips. “They were Malakhim.”

  “Thom, put him under.” Oblivion was the only mercy available to him. “You tried to do the right thing. It’s okay. Just rest now.”

  Once Kapoor was out cold, I exhaled through my teeth. “Can Ezra do that? Plant a suggestion that doesn’t take immediate effect? Could that be why he allowed us to retrieve Kapoor?”

  With mines planted in his subconscious, and us none the wiser, any small thing could have set them off and resulted in mass casualties. We got lucky the inhabitants at Haven weren’t the ones targeted. This time. But Kapoor’s meltdown was the cherry on top of my apocalyptic sundae.

  “Yes.” Wu hung his head. “There would be a trigger word or event that caused it to kick in.”

  “I don’t want to come off as insensitive, but this can’t be news to you.” I twisted to face him. “You’re taking this pretty hard, considering none of it should exactly be a shock. You just admitted you knew it was a possibility, one you didn’t bother sharing with us — as usual. We left him with our vulnerable when you knew the potential was there, that he might be compromised.”

  “I’m well aware of what Father is capable of, and if I had forgotten how ruthless he could be, he reminded me with The Hole’s destruction.” He realized he still held Kapoor’s hand and placed it gently beside him on the cot. “Malakhim can’t be deprogrammed. They simply are, and that’s all. I’ve tried. Many times. A few recover for a while, but they self-terminate if they’re kept apart from the host. Their relationship becomes symbiotic, they can’t survive apart.”

  “Are you saying Kapoor might kill himself?”

  “I’m saying what’s wrong with him can’t be fixed.” Misery crashed over his face. “I’m saying we might have to kill him before he kills us.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Santiago and Portia didn’t make it back to the farmhouse before I called them up and rerouted them to visit the clan Miller confirmed was missing a scouting party. It was important for our allies to understand that we mourned with them, and that each of their losses were felt across the alliance. Otherwise, I might as well be Conquest.

  The problem became that they wanted blood in payment for their blood, and they expected us to find the person responsible. They wanted us to turn Kapoor over to them, though they didn’t realize we had already heard his confession, and I couldn’t make the punishment fit the crime.

  Yes, Kapoor was a murderer. Yes, he had done terrible things in his work as a janitor. Yes, he ought to be held accountable for what he had done of his own volition. But he hadn’t chosen to commit these acts. He was innocent of these crimes, even if he had committed them, and it wasn’t fair to write it off as justice served when he wasn’t guilty.

  Striking a balance between my rising charun nature and the morals Dad and the Canton PD instilled in me made me wish I could slice out the Conquest parts of myself and go back to the simple life of policing crimes committed by humans against humans. Too bad burying my head in the sand wasn’t an option.

  “Luce,” Miller called from the living room. “You need to hear this.”

  I had been sitting in a rocker on the porch, staring down the driveway, wishing my past self would barrel up the road in her Bronco so I could wave my hands and yell at her to turn back, to go anywhere but here.

  Shoving out of my seat, I let myself in and passed Thom curled up in Dad’s shabby recliner, in his tomcat form, with Phoebe. I allowed myself a moment to soak up their cuteness before joining the others in the kitchen.

  “How bad is it?” Super not great if his expression was any indication. “Do we have hard numbers yet?”

  “Four clans are missing members.” Miller sounded distracted, but he kept going. “The total number of confirmed dead is thirty-four. There are still twenty-odd people unaccounted for at this time.”

  “Cause of death?” I could guess, but I couldn’t afford to speculate.

  “Their throats were slit,” he confirmed. “They appear to have all been killed by the same weapon.”

  “Does same weapon mean same person?”

  “Slight deviations in the kill strokes might indicate multiple attackers of varying heights, but it could also be explained away depending on if the victim was sitting or standing, and if the injury was inflicted from behind or in front.” He rubbed his eyes. “Without access to the bodies, we can’t be certain. The bodies were collected, buried, or burned within hours. Whatever evidence they carried is gone.”

&nb
sp; “What do we do?” I leaned my hip against the counter. “We can’t hand Kapoor over for a lynching, but we can’t let these crimes go unpunished.”

  The fastest way for me to lose support would be allowing my people to get away with crimes I would hold anyone else accountable for, and murder was a biggie. I couldn’t shrug off these numbers. The issue had to be resolved before our allies decided the cost of allegiance was too high.

  Much of our forces expected Luce Boudreau to lead them. That was the campaign promise. If I wanted to hold up my end, I couldn’t afford to act like a politician with a mouthful of lies. I had to act like … me.

  “We can buy some time.” Miller palmed my shoulder. “We’ll think of something.”

  “Until we do, Kapoor has to stay conked out. That means Thom will have to stick to him like glue.”

  Word traveled fast with charun, and if news broke that scouting parties were being picked off by friendlies, I wouldn’t have allies for long. Oncas might be willing to forgive in the name of Conquest, but other factions wouldn’t be so quick to follow their lead.

  “Do we have an ETA on Portia and Santiago?”

  “Two more hours, and they ought to be finished passing along their condolences.”

  The pace of the last few days was making me twitchy. It had been quiet. Too quiet. Now this. The first sign of aggression, and it came from within. But if toppling a self-styled deity was easy, then someone would have knocked Ezra on his ass long ago.

  I left Miller to monitor the situation remotely and stepped outside in time to watch Cole angle in for a landing. He started walking toward me, dragon one minute, man the next, and I folded myself against him.

  “The resistance is falling apart.” I shut my eyes, wished I could stay in the comfortable dark. “This is the first blow, and Ezra struck it without us knowing. Who’s next? What’s next? How do we get ahead of him?”

  Cole wrapped his arms around me, a protective cage I would gladly inhabit for the rest of my life. “You’ve done all you can.”