by Chloe Neill
“You’re thinking Reapers are changing their strategy?” Jason asked.
Jill shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s a fact we should pay attention to.”
“He was young,” I said. “He wouldn’t be losing his magic, so he shouldn’t have needed the energy.”
“Maybe they’ve figured out some way to save up the magic,” Paul offered. “Like charging a battery?”
“That would be a new one,” Jason said with a frown.
That would definitely be bad news bears. If young Reapers figured out a way to save up stolen energy and somehow transmit it to the older ones, they could build a traveling army of teenagers who could steal magic a little at a time. But if they could do that . . . “If the Reapers can save up that power somehow,” I asked, “could they do the reverse? Like, could they pull the magic out of us? Could that have caused the blackout?”
“That’s not possible,” Michael said, looking at Scout. “Is it?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” she said, but you could tell the thought made her nervous. “Saving up energy from one girl and somehow transporting it back to a sanctuary is one thing. Frankly, that wouldn’t surprise me much. But taking the power of all Adepts across Chicago? That’s different by, like, magnitudes. I’m sure there’s some reason for this, and whether it’s magical or not, it’s not something the Reapers just whipped out all of a sudden. It would take planning.”
I can’t say I was convinced. We didn’t have the most up-to-date information about Reapers and their activities in Chicago, and we weren’t out there setting the magical pace. Sometimes it felt like we were playing catch-up, trying to keep our heads above water and hoping we didn’t fall too far behind.
After that, no one said a word for a few minutes. The entire room was completely silent. Everyone looked uncomfortable, like they were wearing clothes that were a little too tight. That was when I knew this was going to be an important test for Chicago’s Adepts. Maybe the most important test of all.
We’d promised that in a few years, when our magic dissipated, we wouldn’t fight the loss. We’d let the power return to the universe instead of stealing the souls of others in a vain attempt to keep it.
It was easy to make that promise when you still had your power. When you were right in the middle of the magical high life and life without magic was years away. That decision would be a lot harder, or so I figured, when you were beginning to weaken. Sure, I hadn’t had firespell long, so its absence felt more familiar than having it. But wasn’t it going to be hard for the ones who had gotten used to it—who’d lived with the hum of energy longer, who’d been able to change the world around them with the flick of a hand or a few words of a spell? Wasn’t it going to be hard to simply shut that door and walk away?
Adepts usually talked as if the decision would be easy. And sure, there were consequences to being a Reaper that would also be staring them down—stealing souls, for one. But looking at their faces today, they were beginning to realize that the consequences of giving up their lives as Adepts were going to be harder to bear than they’d thought.
The Enclave door opened. Daniel walked inside, and from the look on his face, he didn’t have any good news, either. We did the roll call and filled him in on our magical deficiencies.
“I spoke with Marceline Foley,” he said. Scout and I exchanged a look. Daniel and Foley were close. He’d known Foley’s daughter before she’d been killed, which I guessed was why he’d been hired to teach studio art.
“Lisbeth Cannon is going to be okay. Marceline found her family, and they’re going to help her get back on track.” He looked down at a piece of paper in his hand. “The Reaper’s name was Charlie Andrews. He’s part of Jeremiah’s crew. Comes from a single-parent family, and his mom works nights. She gets some kind of stipend from the sanctuary to help them out, so she’s gung ho on the Reapers. Thinks her son’s a superhero.”
“Fat chance,” I muttered. It was a long drive from liking Reapers because they helped you pay the bills to thinking it was cool that your son was stealing a teenager’s life force.
“He’s too young to need the magic,” I said. “Did Foley talk to him? Why was he using a girl? Does he know anything about the blackout?”
“She wasn’t able to interrogate him,” Daniel said. “She only heard about the mom. She didn’t actually see him do anything—she only saw Lily assault him with a suitcase.”
All eyes turned to me, and my cheeks flushed red. “No firespell,” I explained. “That was the only weapon I had.”
“Awesome,” Scout said. “So he’s off the hook, and we’re back to square one, except that we don’t have any magic and there might be an army of Reapers not just recruiting teenagers for food, but actually stealing their souls.”
“It’s gonna be a great week,” Michael said.
Daniel tucked the paper away and took a seat at the table. “Everybody, calm down. The council”—those were the really higher-ups who made decisions about Adept strategies—“are looking into the blackout. They have our best minds on it.”
“We are their best minds,” Scout grumbled.
“Be that as it may, for now we leave the heavy lifting to them. This situation is temporary—if there’s a cause, there will be a solution. And we will find that solution,” he said, giving Scout a look. “That said, for now we have no power. So I want everyone on full alert. You go anywhere, you go in pairs. Be careful underground, and just as careful above. Until we know what they’re planning, we take care.”
“We always take care,” Scout whispered. “It’s the Reapers we have to worry about.”
“If we’re all on the same page,” Daniel said. “I think we’re done for now. You’re dismissed.”
“Excellent,” Michael said, and fist bumped Jason again. “Back to the crib and a little midnight gaming.”
“What is it with you two and the fist bumping?” Scout asked.
“We can’t help it if we’re smooth,” Michael said, giving Scout a big wink. She looked away in exasperation, but not before her cheeks went pink.
“Smooth?” I asked, leaning toward Jason. “He saw that in a movie, right?”
“Three days ago. Action flick filmed in Chicago, and he won’t stop quoting the scenes.”
As if we needed any more action in the Windy City.
4
Daniel’s motivational speech and our business done, we left the Enclave again, but stopped in the tunnel outside. We said our good-byes to Jill, Jamie, Daniel, and Paul, and Scout, Jason, Michael, and I hung back.
“Did you ever think your junior year would be this exciting?” I asked Scout.
“I was hoping it would involve a discovery that I was secretly a princess with the power to rule the world and make pop stars my minions,” she said. “I have not yet become aware of any such discovery.”
I patted her arm. “Keep the faith, sister.”
“On to more important topics,” Jason said. “What are we going to do about this blackout?”
“What do you mean ‘do about’ it?” I asked.
“We can’t just sit around and wait for the council to do something,” Michael said. “They put Katie and Smith in charge of the Enclave, after all. That doesn’t show good decision making to me.”
“Michael’s right,” Jason said. “We can’t just wait around and hope they’ll find a fix, and that Reapers will leave us alone in the meantime.”
Scout shook her head. “We also can’t just march into the sanctuary, tell Reapers we’re magic-free, and ask if they’re the reason. We’d be sitting ducks.”
“That’s not a good survival strategy,” I agreed. “But how are we going to find anything else out? We don’t have any leads, and no clues.”
“Enclave Two,” Jason said. “Their specialty is information and technology
. Maybe they know more than we do.”
Enclave Two was one of the other groups of Adepts in Chicago. Our focus was on identifying Reaper targets and dealing with Reapers. Enclave Two was all about information—spying on Reapers, bugging sanctuaries, figuring out what they were up to.
“And that Detroit has some crazy mechanics,” Michael said. “I wouldn’t mind seeing what she’s been working on lately.” He winged up his eyebrows dramatically. Scout punched him in the arm.
“I’m right here,” she said.
“According to you, we aren’t dating, so there’s no harm in me looking.”
“Or checking out Detroit’s machinery,” I added (helpfully). But Scout didn’t look like she thought I was being helpful.
Detroit’s magic was the ability to make things—gadgets, machines, electronics. In the short time I’d been an Adept, she’d shown off a machine that helped ghosts communicate with Adepts and a locket that was actually a projector. I wasn’t sure if the blackout was affecting her in the same way, but it would be a shame if she lost those skills.
Scout might not have been dating Michael, but she wasn’t above bullying him. “Keep your mind and your mitts off Detroit.”
“Whatever you say, mi reina.”
Scout made a humphing noise, but she showed a little secret smile that said she didn’t mind when Michael gave her nicknames in Spanish. It did sound pretty hot.
And speaking of hotness . . . Jason looked at Michael and Scout. “Can you give us a minute?”
Scout and Michael looked at each other, then made goofy kissing noises.
“You’re both five years old,” Jason said. But they did walk down the tunnel, giving us some privacy. Not that anything was going to happen; it wasn’t exactly romantic down here. On the other hand, we didn’t have a lot of free time, and moments in the tunnels were sometimes the only “dates” we got.
“Some days,” Jason whispered, his eyes on the couple, “I feel like the only adult in the room.”
“But if you need someone to cheer you up, you can’t do much better than Michael. He is always on.”
Jason looked back at me, a glint in his eye, and my stomach went hot.
“Okay, so you can do a little better,” I cheekily said. “I’m a pretty great girlfriend.”
He didn’t answer with words. Instead, he took my hand and began to kiss the edges of my fingertips. I practically melted right then and there.
Jason sighed, then wrapped his arms around me. I buried my head in his chest. I felt safe in his arms. Secure. Like even if monsters in the dark popped out at me, he could handle them. He might be furry when he did that handling, but still . . . He suddenly tensed up, and I knew he was thinking about the curse.
“You okay?”
He just sighed. “Yeah. Things are just . . . unsettled at home, and now I’m, like, the only Adept in town who has any kind of power. That’s a lot of pressure.”
“What’s going on at home?” He’d hinted before that because of the curse, werewolves saw the world differently and tended to live apart from humans. At some point, his parents would even choose a bride for him from some other werewolf family. And here he was, far from home, hanging out in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the country. I bet that didn’t sit well with the parentals.
“Things are . . . moving along,” he said. “I’ve got cousins who are causing trouble, being more public about their fur than they should be, and that ends up putting more pressure on me.”
He’d told me his family would pull him back at some point. I just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.
“I thought you’d have more time?”
“I might have,” he said darkly, “if my cousins weren’t acting like hoodlums. That changes the math. I have to step up earlier than before. When it’s all said and done, my cousins may not listen to me, but at least I can be a good example.”
Okay, I silently thought, but a good example of what?
He brushed a lock of hair back from my face. “You’re important to me. I wanted you to know that.”
I appreciated the thought, but I still moved back a little bit, giving myself some space and distance. I knew there was a risk—a really good risk—that I’d end up being hurt if we kept dating. I just didn’t think it would be right now. So soon.
“I know,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t worry.”
“Fair enough,” he said. He chuckled lightly, and before I could tweak him for laughing at me, his lips were on mine. He pulled me closer and kissed me like he was desperate to do it, like he might never get another chance. And as much as I wanted to just sink into the kiss and forget about the world for a little while, the world continued to spin around us. He was still a werewolf with a family that believed in curses, and I was still a girl who didn’t want a broken heart.
My hesitation didn’t seem to scare him. He held me even tighter, his arms enclosing me like he meant to protect me from the rest of the world. If only he could. If only it were that easy.
Eventually he pulled back and kissed my forehead. “We should get back to school. Tomorrow morning awaits. And it’s a Monday.”
“Yeah,” I quietly said. There was no pretending I was excited about that. I mean, being an Adept was hard. But being a junior in high school was a completely different animal.
Jason called out Michael’s name, and after a moment he came jogging down the tunnel, water splashing at his feet, crimson on his cheeks. It wasn’t hard to guess what he and Scout had been doing a couple of passages away.
“You ready?” Jason asked.
Michael nodded. “As I’ll ever be.”
“Then let’s hit the road. It’s waffle day in the cafeteria tomorrow, and I don’t want to sleep through it again.”
Michael rubbed his hands together. “And that, my friend, is why I love Mondays.”
That was the only reason to like a Monday, if you asked me.
“I’ll text you tomorrow,” Jason told me. I squeezed his hand.
Michael gave me a little wave. “See you later, Lily.”
“ ’Bye, guys.” I watched as they moved down the tunnel, trying not to get panicky about my werewolf boyfriend returning to the family who wanted to pick a bride for him. Was it wrong that I totally wanted to lecture his cousins?
Fear heavy in my heart, I tucked my hands into my pockets and walked down the passageway until I found Scout.
It was good to have a best friend, even if neither one of us was in a chipper mood as we walked back to the dorms. Turns out Michael had asked Scout about her dress for Sneak. I’m sure he asked only because he was excited, but she didn’t have a dress and got panicky about “being a girly-girl.”
As we walked down one dark tunnel after another, I filled her in about Jason and his possible disappearance.
She looked about as excited as I felt. “You ever have those days where you wish your life was like a keyboard with an ‘undo’ button? You could just hit the button and rewind recent events, go back to the way stuff was before?”
“More often than you can imagine,” I said.
“Can’t we just skip Sneak?” she asked. “It’s not like we don’t have other stuff to worry about.”
“If you don’t go with Michael, he’ll have to find someone else to go with, and I know you wouldn’t like that. What if he had to take Veronica? Or Mary Katherine?”
“He wouldn’t dare,” she said through gritted teeth. She was so easy to bait.
“So we’re going to Sneak,” I said, linking an arm though hers. We’ll get you a dress, and me a dress, and we’ll be good to go.”
“Will we look more awesome than Veronica and M.K.?”
“Yes. Because we have souls. And brains. And senses of humor.”
“And personalities.”<
br />
This time, we did a fist bump. The boys were right; it was kinda fun.
“At least we don’t have to deal with parents’ night, too.”
Surprised, I looked over at her. “Parents’ night?”
Her expression fell. “Oh, crap on toast. I totally forgot to tell you about parents’ night, didn’t I?”
“That would be ‘yes.’”
“The night before Sneak, all the parents come in and have dinner with their kids. It’s not an official event or anything—that has something to do with insurance.” She shrugged uncomfortably. “My parents don’t come.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me because my parents are God knows where?”
She just frowned. “Sorry.”
I shrugged, but it hurt. Not because she hadn’t told me, but because she was right. I knew where they wouldn’t be—having dinner with me the night before Sneak. They wouldn’t be asking me how school was going. They wouldn’t be checking out my room, or asking me about Jason, or lecturing me about how late I should be staying out or whether I was spending enough time on homework.
I wouldn’t be telling them about magic and Adepts and firespell and Reapers—assuming they didn’t already know. (I was a little suspicious about that.) I wouldn’t be complaining about Enclaves and sanctuaries and Darkenings and vampires and the tunnels beneath St. Sophia’s.
Maybe that was for the best.
Even if it was for the best, misery loved company. “Why don’t your parents come?” I asked Scout.
She shrugged. “They have their roles, and I have mine. My role is staying put at St. Sophia’s and not interrupting them. Their roles are using their money, traveling, being ‘the Montgomery Greens.’”
“That’s your dad?”
She nodded. “My mother doesn’t even hardly use her name anymore. She’s just ‘Mrs. Montgomery Green.’” She shrugged. “I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t want to have a kid and then stick her in a private school where I didn’t have to see her or know who she was. But they came from money, and both of them went to boarding school. It’s how they were raised. It’s normal for them.”