“Ugh, I hope it’s not that,” I said. “The last thing I’d want is a Starlight Warrior sympathetic to the Sinister cause.”
Aleia snapped her fingers. “That could be it, too. Taygetay was captured by them. Maybe it’s her.”
“It could be, but it could also be another Sinister trying to use SWORD’s workforce in her favor,” Elysian objected. “Elektra and Asteropy are still free as well.”
“The noise doesn’t seem to be moving around,” I observed. I pointed to one of the hallways extending into the lobby area. “It’s just coming from that way. What room numbers are down that hall?”
“Rooms 21-56,” Aleia said.
A few moments of flicking through the right pages and I found it. “Got it.” I plucked up the file marked with the number 42. “It’s the only one here from the first floor.”
“It could be from the second floor,” Elysian grumbled.
“I don’t see you moving to check,” I argued back. “Let’s go and see. We can always come back here and search again if we need to. As Aleia pointed out, we have the time.”
Aleia nodded as she drew out her twin daggers. “Yes, I agree. Let’s go quietly, though; no need to remove the element of surprise.”
We hurried down the hall. I felt my power rush over me as I reached out for my sword. It came to my hands at once, like a falling rock flying into the earth.
As we approached the door—too normal-looking to be anything but ominous—two things happened that I immediately noticed. We grew quieter, and the sounds from behind it grew louder. Sounds that sounded a lot like screams.
“My money’s on Taygetay,” I said as we arrived at the door.
Aleia put her fingers to her lips, while Elysian rolled his eyes. But I was soon vindicated.
As we turned the lock and pushed open the door, there she was.
Sort of. She was trapped inside a special kind of bowl. I thought about making a joke about Sinister Stew, but I didn’t think Aleia or Elysian would appreciate it. Then I thought about saving it for Mikey, before remembering Mikey and I weren’t talking to each other.
Aleia, the prudent one, checked the bathroom and adjoining rooms for SWORD agents and other possible foes. While she moved around like a supernatural cop, Elysian sniffed at the bowl, and I scrutinized it.
The bowl itself was the weird part. It was metal, but there were flowing stems of what looked like red electricity webbed around it. Inside, an otherworldly ooze melted into the metal pot, stirred against the unmoving minutes of time.
It looked so normal and natural, sitting on the coffee table. From all the swishing and swirling around, only the moaning and shrieking, calling out in familiar tones, really gave it away as a supernatural artifact.
“Taygetay,” Aleia confirmed, looking at the shadow of the creature I’d formerly called a Sinister.
Two men in suits briefly startled us as we circled the coffee table. SWORD agents during their down time? I almost laughed when I saw them, though I was mature enough to admit that it was probably from nerves more than actual amusement.
Taygetay’s wailing forced me to turn my attention back to her. I saw her face appear in the brew. The meaningless cries stopped. “You!” she hollered, as we all gathered around to see her.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked Aleia.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Taygetay, can you hear me?”
“Of course I can hear you,” she snapped. “Get me out of here.”
“I don’t know, I kinda like you like this,” I told her. “Much easier to seal away.”
“I’m already sealed away,” Taygetay remarked scathingly. “You won’t be able to, unless you set me free. This is Star blood.”
“What?” Aleia put her daggers away and pulled the bowl closer to her. Her hands flinched as she took a hold of it, her fingers brushing against the web of light and power. “She’s not lying,” she whispered, her hushed tones conveying the depth of her surprise.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Star blood is what I use to bind down the demons when we fight,” Aleia said. “SWORD has used it to hold Taygetay captive.”
“Cool.”
“No, this is bad.” Aleia glanced up at me. “Where are they getting Star blood?”
“From Stars, I would assume.” And then it hit me. “And that’s bad, because that means other Stars are working with them. Other fallen Stars.”
“Or they have a supplier,” Elysian spoke up. “Look at this.”
He handed me a small document from under the table: A bill from Apollo City Hospital.
“Let’s take that,” I said. “They’ll likely have a back-up for their files. Maybe I can see if Mark’ll let me follow him to work, and I can look up even more files in the hospital.”
“You think your dad might know something about this?” Aleia asked.
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “He’s a cardiologist. He’d at least have some contact with the blood stuff, right?”
“You know, I can see why you’re better suited to your mother’s career field,” Elysian remarked.
“Shut up.”
Taygetay didn’t take well to being ignored. “Let me out of here!” she cried.
“If we let her out, we’ll have to seal her away with my sword,” I said. “Is she so eager to be dealt with?”
“Sounds like it,” Elysian snorted. “I say go for it.”
“We have to be careful,” Aleia said. “We need to get her out of the bowl, but we can’t touch the blood.”
“Why?” I asked. “Is it dangerous?”
“Possibly,” Aleia admitted. “I don’t know if it’s been tampered with or not. I’m not sure how that would work, but it wouldn’t be the first time lately SWORD has surprised me.”
“Let me get it,” Elysian offered. “Dragons are more resistant to the effects of blood.”
“Good to know,” I murmured, as he flicked his tail over the bowl.
With one smart whack, Elysian’s tail sent the pot flying off the table. It crashed onto the floor, splintering into several large pieces.
Instantly, Taygetay’s essence flooded onto the floor. I blinked, and she was back in her human-like form; I blinked again, and she had her arm wrapped around my throat.
“Hey!” I objected, twisting out of her reach.
She flung me into Aleia, and I knocked her over. As we both fell to the floor, I heard another boom, followed by footsteps, shouts, and other buzzing noises.
“No,” Aleia muttered. “She broke my power over time.”
Taygetay laughed, before launching herself past the already-moving SWORD agents.
Elysian was the first of us to move. He sucked in his breath and blew up his body. “Run,” he hissed at us, before blowing out a stream of fire.
The SWORD agents were confused for about half a second, before they pulled their weapons out and began firing. Elysian roared, while Aleia and I took cover.
Aleia fumbled with her time orb, while I took aim around the small room.
“No one move!” one of the agents shouted.
“What are you doing here?” the other one cried, as he found himself pushed up against the wall, held in place by Elysian’s tail.
“We’re here for answers,” Aleia responded, as she pulled out her daggers again.
“We want to know about the attacks,” I said, “and how you track them.” I nodded to where Taygetay had been kept. “And why and how you’ve been using Star blood for your work.”
“Those demons are dangerous,” one of the agents scoffed. “It’s good that we’re using what we can to seal them away.”
“You know I can just take care of them with my sword, right?”
The first agent huffed indignantly. “Sealing away evil won’t help if you don’t learn anything from it.”
“Is that really what you think?” Elysian grumbled.
Before we could hear the likely stupid response, a high-pitched beep sounded out f
rom the far corner of the room.
“Ugh,” I groaned as I covered my ears. “What is that noise?”
The two agents grimaced, but I saw the smirk on the one guy’s face.
Aleia saw it too. “Other agents are coming,” Aleia warned me. “And we must go after Taygetay before she attacks. She might be weakened, but she’ll rejuvenate quickly if we don’t hurry.”
Elysian roared, slapping out his tail once more. The two agents, distracted and overcome, fell to the ground, and we scuttled out of there.
“Here,” Aleia called, jumping on Elysian’s back as he took flight. She reached out a hand to me.
I grasped it and grinned. “Thanks.”
“Thank me later, after we’re out of here,” she said. “Duck!”
Elysian dodged columns in the lobby and rammed through the window. Glass and debris rained on me, but my wings managed to defer most of the potential damage.
Elysian roared triumphantly as we broke free of the hotel. “Hopefully that’ll slow SWORD down for a few days,” he said as he glanced back down at (mostly) his handiwork.
I looked back and had to agree. Smoke and flames mixed intricately throughout the broken windows. Several guests, which I assumed would be “regular” people as well as possible SWORD agents, were flocking out of the hotel’s exits.
In the crowd, I saw Dante. He met my gaze, even as Elysian carried us far away, and I knew from that one look he was not happy with us.
Of course, Aleia wasn’t that happy either. “I can’t sense Taygetay,” she said.
“She didn’t have that much of a head start,” I remarked. “Where could she have gone?”
I could feel Elysian’s shrug. “She’ll show up soon enough,” he said. “Especially if she is in need of power.”
“She might be looking for Orpheus,” I said. “Remember some of our other battles? They were asking him for more power.”
“That’s possible,” Aleia admitted. “We’ll have to warn him. Let’s go and see if he’s at the cathedral. I left him there earlier.”
“Doing what?” I asked. What would an ex-babysitter of evil be doing in a church at all, besides using it as a cover for evil?
“There’s always plenty of chores and upkeep that need to happen in a cathedral like that one,” Aleia said. “We are still working through some of the last rounds of renovations from where the meteorite struck.” She gave me a hardened look.
“I can’t imagine that she’d find him, though,” I said. “I mean, it took Maia and Celaena close to six months to even find traces of him.”
“Taygetay is probably smarter than both of those Sinisters put together,” Elysian said.
“That’s true,” I acknowledged. “Alright, let’s go and warn Orpheus.”
“Maybe he’ll be able to give us some clues as to where she might go,” Aleia remarked cheerfully.
If he’s even at the church, I thought.
☼
20 ☼
Revealing
Once more, my thoughts on the matter were preemptively astute. Orpheus was not at the cathedral when we arrived. No one around had seen him for a good while, either.
“That’s strange,” Aleia said.
“Is it?” I asked.
“Stop it,” Aleia ordered. “You might think he’s a terrible person, but he’s been changed.”
“No, I know he’s a terrible person,” I said. “He tried to kill me, remember?”
“Not recently.”
“Anyone can change for six months; especially if he needed to survive, which is exactly the case.”
“I know you’re biased against him—”
“I’m biased?” I repeated. “You’re the one who won’t consider the possibility that he’s playing you.”
Aleia frowned, but a moment later, she lowered her eyes. “I know him a lot better than you do,” she replied.
The weakness in her voice excited me; I knew I was the victor in the argument. But, since she was a friend, I knew it was better not to gloat.
“Where do you think he would be?” Elysian asked.
“I don’t know,” Aleia admitted. “He likes to walk with me in the evenings sometimes, near the park, down by the marina, and sometimes even in the city.”
“He told me he was around the Time Tower the last time I talked with him,” I said.
“Let’s just split up. That way, we can keep a watch out for Taygetay as well,” Elysian suggested.
“That’s a good idea,” Aleia agreed. “I’ll go into the city.”
“I’ll take the park and the marina,” I said.
Elysian grinned. “I’ll take off.”
“Let’s meet back here in about an hour,” I said. “Surely, if he is somewhere around here, it wouldn’t be too far.”
We all agreed and headed off in our respective directions; I watched as Aleia and Elysian took off, and then I conjured up my wings.
Taking off was less than graceful, but I managed to get going nicely enough.
“Whoo!” I cheered, calling down to the crowds below as the people walked past and didn’t bother paying me any attention.
This was freedom, I thought. With the wind brushing against my fiery wings, the air crisp and clear, and the clouds misty and playful, even gravity couldn’t weigh me down.
Gradually, I made my way over toward Shoreside Park and the marina area. Yes, I took the long, showy way, but I knew I had time. It was a short flight, and spying on Orpheus wasn’t my ideal evening, especially after trying to escape a confrontation with SWORD and facing an escaped Sinister.
It wasn’t long before the last of the sunlight disappeared under the horizon’s protection. I dropped from the skies, looking intently through the woods and the forests and the alleyways behind the docks.
“This was a waste of time,” I muttered to myself as I glanced around. Orpheus was probably back at the church already. We should have just waited for him.
It’s not like Taygetay would find him right away. Smarter than some of the other Sinisters she may be, I thought, but that still didn’t help her after being out of the game for the past several months.
We had some time before she would bother attacking, I decided. Maybe not much. But some.
I glanced up at the Time Tower’s clock, squinting into the distance to read the time. (I was really going to have to get a new phone.)
I had five minutes to meet up with Aleia and Elysian, who probably had better luck than I did. I shook my head before getting ready to take off.
It was only at the last second before I picked up my feet that I hesitated. Something was missing, I thought.
I glanced around and spotted Lakeview Observatory. Was it possible he was checking in on the meteorite? I wondered. Flying around wouldn’t help much if he was inside.
I decided I could be a bit late meeting up with the others and headed over. My superhero self wasn’t required to fulfill this task, so I pressed the mark on my wrist and felt my regular form take over.
No need to waste the energy, I thought with a grin, as I headed inside. I regretted the action almost immediately upon entering the building.
Something was wrong.
Of course there is something wrong, and I’ve decided not to show up as Wingdinger. I groaned.
Hopefully, Hamilton could do something about the trouble. Transforming in the observatory could be tricky. Of course, I’d done it before, but I hated the thought of trying to do it with demons after me or a Sinister nearby. SWORD would probably be only too happy.
Just as I had at the Black Site Hotel—my private name for Dante and SWORD’s silly black site/hidey hole—I perked up my ears to listen. Checking my wrist, I didn’t feel any pain.
A sudden burst of excitement raced through me as I wondered if it could also be the person Alora told me Orpheus had been communicating with.
Catching Orpheus in the act of talking to the enemy would certainly shut Aleia up. It might even make her stop defending him.
Noises began to reach my ears as I silently made my way through the observatory. It was two people, I realized, arguing.
“—don’t know why you would think that.” The first voice was muffled a bit, but the words were pretty clear.
“Come on, don’t play hard to get.”
I was about to start scooting the other way when I realized I recognized the second voice. It was Mikey.
“What’s Mikey doing here?” I nearly laughed aloud. “Doesn’t he know this is a place where learning takes place?”
“Stop! Don’t come any closer,” the first voice was getting louder, clearer.
“I should’ve known that Dinger was onto something before. He was pretty angry when Jason said he thought about asking you out,” Mikey said.
I flattened myself beside the door to the observatory room, where the telescope was located. Who was he talking to? I wondered. Carefully, carefully, oh so carefully, I peeked into the room.
And frowned. What was Mikey doing . . . talking to Raiya?
I was surprised to see her, especially since I hadn’t seen her all week. She’d been absent, and Gwen had been perversely happy about that. I wondered if Raiya had been sick or something, but she certainly didn’t look like she was recovering from anything as I looked at her.
“Well, Jason never did ask me out,” Raiya assured him.
Good.
Jason didn’t need to ask Raiya out. It was an insult to Rachel and Raiya for him to even consider it.
Her eyes narrowed from behind her long bangs as she backed up against the telescope. “And even if he did, I would tell him the same thing I’ve told you: No.”
I felt my teeth grind together. Mikey was just trying to make me angry, wasn’t he?
“Just let me talk with you for a bit,” Mikey said. “I’m sure I could change your mind.”
Remembering (The Starlight Chronicles Book 4) Page 15