The Wayward Star

by Jenn Stark

  “It’s not something you should be entering at all,” Brody countered. “You can’t tell me every Connected in the world is down with going to war. I can guarantee you that’s not the case.”

  “Not war, but there’s definitely a desire for safety…protection. Protection we can offer,” I said, though it sounded strange for me to be suggesting it. “It’s come to the point where not making a choice to protect our own becomes its own choice.”

  Armaeus inclined his head.

  “You’re getting into the game,” Brody groaned. “That’s what you’re telling me. You’re going to go all vigilante and shit and get into the game.”

  Beside me, Nikki drummed her fingers on her knees, clearly keyed up. I couldn’t help my own wisp of righteous fervor. I’d always understood that the Arcana Council kept itself above and away from the affairs of humankind. I’d railed against it, argued and fought and finally accepted it. But I’d never really liked it. I’d always known they—we—could do more. And now, with this new and different Magician, a Magician both darker and more unpredictable than the one who had come before, it appeared we were going to get our chance. I had no idea what that meant. The prospect terrified and exhilarated me at once.

  “The situation is yet more complicated in that there have been activities ongoing that have undermined the Council. I was not aware of these activities because I had lost memories of this particular threat. I didn’t take the proper precautions to protect us against the Shadow Court because I no longer considered it a problem. That said, it’s now time to act. There will be changes within the Council structure, and there will be changes with how the current Council conducts itself going forward. I will no longer be the head of the Council, either. Instead, I will be its sword.”

  Nikki and I both jerked straight. “Wait, what?” I asked. “What do you mean, its sword? Why wouldn’t you return as head of the Council?”

  A gong sounded deep in the heart of Prime Luxe.

  “Ummm…what the hell was that?” Brody asked warily.

  The Magician smiled. “It appears we have been summoned to a meeting. The first meeting of the Council in eight hundred years that I did not call.”

  “Well, there better fucking be doughnuts,” Brody muttered, slumping back in his chair.

  7

  Without any of us moving, everything spun, the room shifted around us in a dizzying whirl. A moment later, we no longer sat in the Magician’s sprawling library but were assembled in one of the conference rooms of the imposing fortress, a chamber I’d been to countless times before…yet never quite like this.

  Whereas Armaeus tended to prefer a typical business setting with a black central conference table, plain chairs, and lots of computer equipment, the new guard of the Arcana Council had slightly more esoteric tastes. The conference table was bright white and surrounded by white egg chairs with cushions in every color of the rainbow. More jarringly, the room was painted in a wild, undulating pattern of reds and purples and yellows, not unlike the lava lamp effect of Aleksander Kreios’s residence. In addition, the Devil wasn’t only in the details, he was standing at the front of the room.

  As always, he was breathtaking.

  Aleksander Kreios had ascended to the Council in the early 1930s, when the world was caught between two global wars. A native of what was then Constantinople and what was now Istanbul, he still rocked a beach-bum Mediterranean vibe that was only enhanced by his long, tawny-gold hair, his glittering green eyes, and his usual attire of a loose linen shirt, frayed khakis, and beach sandals. That look had been upgraded with the recent improvement in his position, however. His sharply cut gray suit, with a jacket unbuttoned to reveal a deep green shirt that matched the color of his eyes, made for impressive eye candy.

  “Absolute power rings my chimes absolutely,” Nikki put in, and Kreios spared her a teasing smile before turning to me.

  “My dear Sara Wilde,” he said warmly. “Brody Rooks, Nikki Dawes, how good and how important of you all to come.”

  “I don’t think I really need to be here,” countered Brody immediately. “Pretty sure I can get the meeting notes later. I’ve got things to do.”

  A new voice sounded almost before its owner appeared in the room, hard, autocratic, almost cruel. I hadn’t heard this voice in a while by careful design, and I wasn’t happy to be hearing it now.

  “You’re wrong. You’ll stay.” The Emperor of the Arcana Council, Viktor Dal, entered next. He was the kind of man whose presence you immediately noticed, at least after he finished fully materializing into view, but which you also immediately shied away from, out of self preservation.

  He strode forward from one of the doorways of the Devil’s conference room in his usual austere uniform of a well-tailored and sharply cut suit that still managed to seem dated, polished shoes, and platinum accents. His shoes were black, his shirt a steel gray, and his eyes were as cold and pale as a winter sky. His hair was blonde and close cropped. With his high Aryan cheekbones and chiseled jaw, he should’ve been attractive, probably was attractive to a certain type of person, but that person had to have a deep and abiding interest in self-harm to actually draw close to the Emperor.

  I’d known Viktor Dal as long as Brody had, and neither of us had any affection for him.

  “Is that right?” Brody asked, turning on Dal. “Because last I checked, I wasn’t a part of your little Mouseketeer Club here. And I especially don’t give a shit what you think. That’s cute that the others here gave you a pass despite your despicable nature, kidnapping kids because it made you feel like a big, big man, but you and I have never gotten square on that, and I don’t think it’s about to happen now.”

  I glanced at Brody with sharp surprise. When we’d worked together in Memphis, Viktor Dal, who I hadn’t realized at the time was psychic, had been posing as a counselor in the public school system. He’d even visited Farraday High, though I’d never been sent to him, thank God. While he was there, several children had gone missing and had stayed missing, and some of those abductions had been tied to Viktor—though not until years later. It had taken nearly a decade for Brody and I to bring the last of those kids back, and as far as I was concerned, the detective was right. There had yet to be a reckoning for the Emperor’s actions in that very bad deal back in Memphis. The Arcana Council hadn’t taken action against him because he hadn’t directly killed anyone, not that we could prove, anyway, but the harm he had done was deep and powerful nevertheless.

  “So many questions,” Viktor sneered now at Brody. “So many questions you all have, and so much fear. But the time for fear is over. The time for action is here. You want your retribution, then you should remain and learn who your true enemies are.”

  I didn’t think Brody had too many questions about that particular issue, but there was something in Viktor’s voice that pulled at me. As much as I despised him, the man had a point. We’d never pushed him to reveal his secrets. Maybe he had more to say than we thought.

  Unbidden, the letter I’d received at Justice Hall poked at my brain. You aren’t worthy. You’ve never been worthy. Had I missed a psychic teenager in the back of the classroom when I’d been a student at Farraday High? Worse, had Viktor found her instead? Was that even possible?

  “Sit, sit,” the Devil said, recalling my attention. “We await the High Priestess and the Fool.”

  “That’s it?” I asked. The Arcana Council had grown quickly in the past several months, with old members returning to the fold, new members being added, and long-time active members dramatically increasing their engagement. In addition to the Magician, the High Priestess, the Emperor, the Devil, the Fool, and myself as Justice, the Council also included the Hermit, Death, the Hanged Man, the Lovers, Judgment, and the Hierophant...plus a past and possibly future Temperance currently trying to keep out of the fray. “Where’s everyone else?”

  The Devil merely smiled. “There is no need for a full quorum of the Council for what we’re discussing today. This is mor
e of a tactical measure. A special project, if you will.”

  I curled my lip, forcing myself not to groan at the term. This group was getting more corporate all the time. Ordinarily, I would be the one sitting out the extra special meeting, but this was a singular group. The Magician, the Devil, the Emperor, the High Priestess, the Fool, and me? There was some serious firepower here.

  What was going on?

  As if summoned by my thoughts, Simon burst through the doors, his arms overflowing with laptop, devices, and paperwork. As usual, he wore an eighties vintage short-sleeved T-shirt over a long-sleeved T-shirt, worn jeans that hung loosely from his narrow hips, and beat-up Chucks. His wild mop of hair was trapped beneath a Halloween-orange skullcap with an actual skull on it, and a grin lit up his pale face. His eyes were a light azure that echoed the faint blue cast of his skin—less a supernatural effect than the result of being hunched over computers all day long. He managed to reach the gleaming white table before everything tumbled free and dropped his haul to the surface with a clatter.

  “Sorry, sorry… You’re not going to believe what I found, though, and it’s awesome. I can’t wait to get started, and—”

  “Eshe.” The Magician interrupted Simon, his voice low and resonant. We all turned to another doorway as the Fool scrambled to open his arsenal of tech toys. I barely kept from gasping, while Nikki was nowhere near as restrained.

  “Holy Mariah Carey on a bling binge, what happened to you?”

  It was an apt description. Eshe had always been beautiful—I suspected she’d popped out of her mother’s womb already winning pageants for most beautiful baby—but this was different. Her usual toga was draped in shimmering drops of light from her crown to her toes, and she glowed with an effervescence I’d never seen in her before, a light so powerful, it almost hurt to study her directly. Instinctively, my third eye flipped open, and I was startled to see that Eshe’s internal light shone even brighter. She didn’t crackle with the electrical flare I typically saw in powerful Connecteds. Instead, her radiance remained steady, a literal aura that flowed out from her like a healing light.

  She turned to Nikki, her eyes wide and fixed, and for once, she did not sneer. That, more than anything, unnerved me. “In truth, I do not know,” she said, her voice rolling, melodic, and almost beatific. “It has been too long since I answered the call of the oracle, and I was not prepared. My body is…adapting. Lainie was even less prepared.”

  There was such a mournful tone to her voice, I drew up short. “Was she hurt?”

  Eshe shook her head. “Not hurt. Helped, you could say.” She lifted a hand, and the image of the young astronomer appeared before us in a veil of mist. Lainie sat on the edge of a bed, gazing out over a brightly lit view of the city. Her eyes were wide and slightly unfocused, which shouldn’t have been surprising given her blindness, but there was something different to her expression now. An alertness, a wonder. It gave me chills.

  “Can she see again?” Brody asked the question before I could.

  “She can see more than she could before,” Eshe allowed. “However, her sight is not restricted to that which is in front of her. There is more she is witness to.”

  “Say what?” Nikki asked. “You mean she sees dead people?”

  Once again, Eshe shook her head. “I don’t know exactly what she sees,” she said with true regret in her voice. “If it is what I see, then it is a question of layers. There is that which is readily accessible with normal sight, layered with the auras of energy surrounding all living things, overlaid with a darkness, a shadow unlike anything I have seen since the Dark Ages.”

  I grimaced. Darkness didn’t sound good. “You mean demons? The Shadow Court?”

  “Neither, exactly. It is energy. Corrupted, restrained energy. That’s the best I can describe it. And it’s all around us. A dark force waiting to be commanded.”

  Beside me, Brody passed a hand over his brow. “You people just keep getting weirder.”

  While we spoke, Viktor had moved forward until he reached Eshe’s side. He took her elbow and led her to the table, seating her. The unexpected solicitude surprised me, but not more so than the fact that the High Priestess let him touch her. They had been allies of a sort during some of the recent minor skirmishes on the Council, but was there something more between them than I had realized? And why was Eshe acting so strangely?

  “The effects of the hallucinogenic smoke utilized by the Oracle wears off typically in eight to twelve hours,” the Magician said, his words quiet. “What Lainie and Eshe have experienced may resolve itself that quickly, or it may not. But while the influence is upon them…”

  “Yes,” Eshe said. Smiling up at Viktor with what seemed to be real affection, she reached out and clasped the Emperor’s hand, drawing him down beside her. He went willingly. “We must speak our truth,” she said.

  Then the Devil made his move. He strolled down to their corner of the table and sat across from them. Both Nikki and I blinked, then straightened, sensing the shift in the room’s energy.

  “Yes,” Kreios said, leaning forward. His eyes glittered with intensity, and his focus nearly stole my breath. I wasn’t used to seeing the Devil as anything but a languorous playboy, but he focused on Viktor and Eshe with brutal precision. “Truth. What is your most important truth, Eshe? What is it you most need to say?”

  “Stop that,” the Emperor interrupted brusquely, gesturing with a sharp hand. “You don’t need to compel her. She’s not your servant.”

  The declaration was so unexpected, I could only stare at Viktor in confusion. Who was compelling whom here? Eshe was under the influence of a mix of inhaled drugs and herbs that the Devil had nothing to do with, but was sitting next to her, touching her, affecting Viktor?

  Apparently so. The Emperor turned angrily toward Kreios. “I am the one whose truth you must know. I am the one with the answers you seek.”

  Okay…

  Opposite Viktor, the Devil’s eyes flashed with excitement. I realized that I was still watching the proceedings with the benefit of my third eye, and the energy in the room was positively combusting outside the serene, calming glow-bubble that Eshe exuded. Viktor was protected in that bubble and apparently didn’t see the arcing energy that shot out in all directions around him.

  “Very well, Viktor Dal,” Kreios murmured. “What is the truth you would most like to share?”

  The statement was casually made, almost drawling, but there was no denying the amount of power that Kreios put behind the request. Sitting in the shield of the High Priestess’s energy, Viktor Dal apparently didn’t notice that Eshe and the Devil were compelling his truth, or didn’t care. He didn’t so much start spilling his candy, he dumped the mother lode of gobstoppers on us.

  “I was contacted nearly eighty years ago by an organization attached to the Führer,” Viktor began, his voice resolute.

  Um, what? I gaped at his reference to Adolf Hitler. I’d known the Emperor had been a supporter of the young Hitler prior to the Magician interceding and elevating Viktor to the Council, so that he could do no harm to mortals because of his misguided beliefs. But he still spoke the man’s name with a reverence that made my blood run cold.

  Viktor had been in Memphis when I was a kid there. Why? I’d always assumed it had been just my bad luck—or good luck, depending, since I’d been able to recover the kids he’d abducted, but now…

  Why had he been in Memphis?

  Viktor continued, oblivious to my scrambling thoughts. “This organization knew and respected my allegiances to the Council, but they asked a favor. An easy favor to give. They asked me to provide assistance to a family descended from angels and its bloodline whenever it was needed. Financial assistance. Pressure. Nothing illegal or immoral. I was happy to grant their request. The family’s name was Fuggeren.”

  I stared, though I’d suspected this was where this was going as soon as the Emperor had started talking. Jarvis Fuggeren was the only contact we had had, the only name w
e had definitively attached to the Shadow Court. We didn’t know if he was merely a friend to the cause or one of the masterminds behind our rival council, but for Viktor to mention him strongly argued for the latter. But what was this about the Fuggerens being descended from angels? That was a legitimate claim by some Connecteds, but Jarvis? No. I would have picked up on that.

  Right?

  Viktor squared his shoulders. “Recent events have…changed me. I was granted back the doubts and concerns I had sought to remove from myself.” He shifted a rueful glance to Armaeus. “You are not the only Council member to both remember and forget too much.”

  The Magician remained quiet, and it was all I could do not to scoff, though the idea of Viktor suddenly growing a conscience in the wake of the recent conflicts the Arcana Council had faced was not completely unreasonable. He and Simon had both been shaken by an unholy contract they’d struck when Simon had ascended back in the eighties, the details of which had unraveled in front of us during the war against the gods. I’d helped Simon through that transition, and I’d tangentially understood that Viktor had been affected as well. I spent so much time trying to avoid the man, however, I hadn’t given him much thought.

  But if he had been asked to help out the Fuggeren family nearly eighty years ago, did that mean he still was in tight with them? And if Jarvis Fuggeren was embroiled with the Shadow Court…

  Why had Viktor been in Memphis?

  My blood iced over as Viktor began speaking again. “Once my recollections had been fully restored, I began to quietly do research into the agreements I had made and the people I had made them with, only to find myself more concerned at every turn. I had agreed to help the Fuggeren family, but they were little more than ghosts, well-monied playboys without any direction, and that didn’t make sense. Why did they need my help? There seemed to be no reason. I did some small favors, and we both drifted to our own priorities, and our conversations ceased. This was more than half a century ago. Then I was contacted shortly after your return from Hamburg, Armaeus. With a new deal, an offer. To join the Shadow Court and take down the Arcana Council.”