by Liz Schulte
“I did use my ability to calm your mother from time to time. It was a much more subtle influence than I had ever done, but I thought it was me controlling my abilities better. I never considered it could be you.”
“All I know is that I can’t do what most guardians can do, and they can’t do what I do.”
“Could it be an elder thing?”
“I don’t think so. Quintus introduced me to one elder and Jace couldn’t do it either.”
Holden tapped his foot. “Let’s get out of here.” He threw some money on the table and we went back to his place. As soon as he shut and locked the door he said, “Show me how you hurt the jinni in Italy.”
My hands went behind my back. I didn’t want to hurt Holden. “No.”
“If you want to know if you’re using my ability, this is the only way. I have to see what you do.” He stepped toward me and I backed away.
“I can’t.”
“Sure you can. I have no doubt you’re still plenty angry.” His advance didn’t slow at all. “I’ve taken worse. Give it your best shot.” His hand nearly grazed me.
My heart pattered in anticipation. I reached out with two shaking hands and gripped Holden’s arm. “I’m sorry,” I whispered before I sent a steady stream of light into him. I closed my eyes and looked away, guilt filling me. After a few seconds of complete silence, I peeked through my lashes. Holden was unaffected. I lifted one hand; his arm was the same as it was before. “I don’t understand.”
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Either you don’t want to hurt me, or it doesn’t work on me.”
“Your turn.”
His thumb caressed my wrist. “There isn’t a chance in this world of that happening.”
“Come on. You made me try. If you can’t do it to me then we know our abilities don’t work on one another.”
“We’ll assume.”
“Holden—”
He pulled me closer and kissed my cheek. “No.”
“Fine.” I pulled my hand away. “Couch or bed?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m going to sleep. Do you want the couch or bed?”
“Why on earth would I sleep on the couch?”
“Fine. Have a good night.” I conjured myself a blanket and pillow and tossed them on the couch.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to sleep. Keep up, Holden.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “You remember our bet, right?”
I pursed my lips. “You disrupted me.”
“Nevertheless, I was the winner.” The gold in his eyes sparked with an internal flame, “And you’re my prize.”
I settled in on the couch. “Get the light on your way out.” I wouldn’t dignify his remarks with a comment. I was no one’s prize.
I could feel his eyes boring into me. His soft steps approached the couch. I kept my eyes closed so I couldn’t see him and give in. “If you want to sleep on the couch, that’s fine.” His lips brushed against mine. “But you’re still mine.”
Fourteen
I tracked down Jace as soon as I got back from Henry’s place, wanting his contacts so I could keep investigating. To my huge confusion, Jace was hesitant about providing them, giving some excuse about how his source trusted him and he couldn’t betray that trust. “I wouldn’t betray your trust either, Quintus,” he had said.
“I understand what you’re saying, I do. But I’ll go crazy sitting here doing nothing.”
Jace looked at me, his infinite patience waning. “You aren’t doing ‘nothing.’ You’re allowing me time to make sure this goes off without a hitch.”
“Meanwhile more guardians could be dying.”
“No one else has disappeared.”
“Yet.”
“Have you considered that maybe Olivia was the responsible party all along?”
“That’s absurd.”
“She has abilities that none of the rest of us do. Maybe she knew where the guardians would be sent. You said yourself that she could see those who needed help without receiving a specific assignment. She’d have at least some sort of idea of who would have guardians assigned to them. And she was in love with a jinni. Perhaps she was feeding him information and they set all of this up.”
I considered what he said, but it didn’t seem right. Olivia would never hurt anyone and she hadn’t had contact with Holden. I would have known, wouldn’t I? Holden couldn’t have faked his reaction to finding out she was still alive. I let it play back through my head. The sheer range of emotions that should’ve been foreign to him were real. But Olivia would never talk about him. Was that because she was hiding something? “Why would they have been captured? What would they have to gain?”
Jace thought for a moment. “Maybe they set up the capture. That’s why you weren’t killed like the rest of the guardians who were taken. They needed a witness. The jinni could have been the mastermind behind the whole operation, unbeknownst to the others. Why else would he walk into a warehouse and stand there waiting to be shot? He let them shoot him and they ‘accidentally’ threw him in the cell with Olivia who was also unharmed.” Jace raised his eyebrows.
“After that you don’t know what happened—only what they told you. Maybe a demon caught on to their plan and showed up to stop them by sending Holden to hell, so Olivia stopped him and took Holden’s soul back. Now he’s free and she left us. Who knows what they plan on doing.”
Though his words made a certain amount of sense, I knew in my heart he was wrong. If Olivia was in contact with Holden as Jace hypothesized, she wouldn’t have been so miserable the last year. No matter what anyone thought or what even I wanted to believe, Holden loved her too. I shook my head.
“I’m not saying I believe this. The point I’m making is we don’t know what’s going on, do we?” We need to take our time and not do anything rash. I don’t want to blame Ezra and save Olivia if she’s the culprit.”
“She isn’t.”
“Will you give me time to find out for certain?”
“Sure. But I’d like to point out one thing. If she was taking guardians, why would she stop now? What could she have gained by capturing and killing guardians that she would no longer want now that she’s completely free?”
Jace drummed his fingers on the counter. “Maybe she didn’t pull his soul from purgatory at all. Maybe she traded the guardians for his soul and now that they have it, her goal is met. Look, I still think Ezra is behind this, but we can’t ignore her involvement. I want to solve this as much as you. The sooner we wrap this up, the safer our people will be.”
“She wouldn’t have known which guardians were sent.”
“True. So if we can find a connection between all the guardians, it will clear her name. I have to get back before someone misses me and starts asking questions. I know it is difficult, my friend, but you staying off the radar is what’s best for our plan.”
I nodded. The only thing I had found so far that connected them was their assignments to Chicago. I looked at my board and thought about Henry’s map. I still hadn’t told Jace about going to see Anna or what I found at Henry’s. I intended to tell him after he gave me his resistance contact, but since he didn’t give me the contact and I had no other leads to go on, I wanted to think about all of this for a while before I shared it. Henry was the odd one out. Anna’s comment about Lucus working well with children made me look at everyone differently. I remembered each of the people taken displayed a particular talent toward one or two areas during training, all of them except Henry. He was the only guardian less than 500 years old who was taken. He never displayed an exceptional talent. Without Henry in the equation, it was easier to start drawing links between the victims. What if Henry wasn’t targeted, so much as his investigation was stopped? What had he stumbled upon?
I returned to Henry’s hidden room. There was a long thin table covered with scraps of paper and four bulletin boards hanging on the walls. The first bo
ard had paper of various sizes hanging from it, the second board had the map of where people were taken from, the third board had what looked like surveillance photographs, and the fourth board contained nothing. I should’ve looked more carefully earlier, but I’d thought it would be more efficient to have the resistance explain their thinking rather than trying to recreate the wheel.
I started with the first board. I took down a slip of paper; it was an assignment. I checked the address against the map, and found it matched one of the pins in the board. All of the papers on the boards appeared to be assignments, in fact. How did Henry get these? Some of them were crumpled and others were stained, but somehow he managed to dig up all the assignments. In contrast to the typical guardian parchment, the other paper was a stark white notebook page that had been torn to shreds. It didn’t look like Henry had gotten very far in piecing it back together yet. I sat down at his table and began fitting the torn hunks together like a puzzle. Over the many years of my life, I’d become proficient at putting together puzzles. This was harder than most because chunks were missing, but after a couple hours of steady work, the sheet began to come together. I taped the pieces together then looked at what was before me—a list of instructions written in messy, almost childish, swooping handwriting. It read:
1. Pick up the guardian cover head with runes 1, 6, and 8.
2. Take to prepared room in warehouse and (missing piece)
3. When you are given the okay take to the back room, but do not go in it. (missing piece.)
4. (Missing piece) Wait 1-2 hours then wear rune 3, 7 to retrieve the body.
5. Sell at your discretion.
6. (Missing piece)You will be contacted with the next subject. Do not attempt to initiate contact.
I stared at the paper. Where were they taking the guardians, between capturing and selling? What was the room in the back? I was tempted to go to the warehouse, but knew it was too dangerous. It was still under jinn control, and I couldn’t readily escape. I folded the pieced together sheet of paper and put it in my back pocket then moved down to the photographs. All featured jinn coming and going from the warehouse. The pretty but mean blonde was in several of the pictures, as was a woman with long dark hair who wore a lot of leather. Holden was not in any of the warehouse pictures, but he was in other pictures, including quite a few showing him talking to the blonde at some nightclub. There were also pictures of her going into his apartment and a picture of him entering hers. If he was involved in this, I had no doubt Olivia had no idea. He was going to hurt her and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I hated him. I hated him.
It wasn’t because Olivia chose him over me. It was because he didn’t have the decency to see how lucky he was and to make himself a better person for her. No matter how skeptical she thought she was, she still didn’t see the world as it was. She had a gift of seeing the good in people that was impossible to squash. The very least the man she chose to love could do was try to be the person she believed he was. She must’ve had a lot of faith in Holden or why would she go with him? Why would she keep setting herself up to fall? Why did I still care?
I felt the call of someone praying for my guidance. I could tell it wasn’t an elder or a guardian so I went. I appeared outside of a rather large commotion with police, paramedics, and a lot of civilians. I looked around for anyone who might’ve called me by name. My eyes landed on Femi who was leaning against her car.
“Didn’t know if you’d come.”
“How’s Olivia?” I asked, unable to stop myself.
“She’s adjusting. That’s not why I called.”
“What do you need then?”
Femi pointed to the commotion. “Do you know about this?”
I shook my head.
“Someone’s sparking mass killing sprees. This is the third one and over twenty people were murdered. My money is on a jinni from the warehouse.”
“If you think it’s a jinn matter, take it to Holden.”
“Holden and Olivia have enough to deal with. Where are the guardians who are supposed to be helping these people? Why are you letting this happen?”
“We can’t predict the future.”
“You aren’t even trying—”
I cut her off. “Was there anything else you needed?” I couldn’t argue our side since I didn’t know what it was. Maybe the elders were trying to get in front of this, or maybe they were ignoring it. I didn’t know.
Femi stalked toward me. “Olivia said you were a good person. She said that underneath it all you cared. I thought you would want to do something to help these people.”
I considered for a moment. There wasn’t much I could do—at least not here. I would have to talk to Jace and see if he knew anything about this and try to figure out where the next attack would be. “If I knew where the next attack was going to be, perhaps I could do something. All I could do now is comfort the survivors, but I’m sure that’s being handled.”
She sighed but nodded. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything out, and if you need me, Sy at the office can always find me.”
I started to leave then stopped. “Do you think she intends to stay with Holden?”
Femi’s eyes dilated. “I don’t think even she knows the answer to that.”
Fifteen
The murmur in the room rose to a low, constant thunder. Olivia sat on the couch in my office, crossing and uncrossing her legs. She changed her outfit every seven minutes. The last outfit she tried was a snug black skirt that hit at the knee and a white silk shirt that clung a little too distractingly, but I banned her from changing again. Her fidgeting was making me nervous and I couldn’t afford to be nervous right now.
Baker charged into the office. “Everyone’s here. Let’s get this show on the road.”
I stood up from my desk and Olivia fell in step with me.
“Just a second.” She paused at the door, and light surrounded her head. When the gleam disappeared, her hair was straightened and long down her back. “Ready,” she said with a nod.
“You’ll do fine,” I told her. “Stand between me and Baker at all times.”
“Don’t let them smell your fear,” Baker said with a smile in his voice.
I felt Olivia’s heart jump at the thought. “He’s teasing,” I assured her.
“I’m fine,” she said her voice hard, masking the strain.
We went downstairs single file then onto a small stage along the back wall. I stepped in front of Olivia and Baker and waited until the room was so silent I could hear myself breathing.
“The rumors of my absence have been exaggerated. I am still here and your leader, but circumstances have changed.” I scanned the audience making mental notes of all the faces peering back at me. “I am no longer under the control of hell. I have been released, but not by them.”
A few gasps carried; I had everyone’s undivided attention. Phoenix’s quiet voice carried from the back. “Who released you?”
I took Olivia’s hand. The room exploded into frenzied chatter at the sight of her glow. I pulled her next to me and held up a hand to silence them. “This is Olivia. She is my guardian. She pulled my soul from purgatory and restored it to my body. I have all of the same abilities I had before, only now I don’t have to fear demons. I have control of my life again. You could do the same.”
“How?” Cicero asked, standing near the front.
“Olivia wasn’t happy as a guardian. She has forsaken her people and agreed to stay with me. We are building an empire. You can stand with me now or become our enemy. The jinn will have glory and power beyond your greatest imaginings.”
“She’s doesn’t look like any guardian I’ve ever seen,” Mears’ gruff voice called. “Prove it.”
Call him to stage, her voice echoed in my mind.
“Move closer, Mears,” I said, wishing I knew what she had planned. I hated surprises.
Mears, a giant ox of a man, pushed his way up front, a conceited look on his distorted face. Oli
via reached out to him. He took her hand before I could stop her and yanked her off the stage. In the next instant he was on the floor screaming in pain as Olivia held onto him; her hand looked like it could’ve been carved from the moon. When she released him, I helped her back on stage. The straight hair had disappeared and her normal, wavy locks were back, making her look like an avenging angel.
“Would anyone else like a demonstration?” she asked in a cold voice.
The room stared at the burned and blistered giant on the floor.
I repressed a smile.
“What do you want from us?” Phoenix asked, moving in for a closer look, but not too close.
“I’m meeting with Malphas this afternoon to negotiate a new deal with hell on behalf of the jinn, one in which we are treated fairly. Before I go ahead, I want to know you stand behind me, 100%.” I scanned the room again. “They need to know we’ll take this fight to them, if they don’t give us what we want.”
“You’re just trying to save yourself,” someone yelled from the crowd.
I gave a hollow smile. “I didn’t have to come back. I’m not afraid of hell’s retribution. The last demon who came after me ended as a pile of ash. I came back because I saw opportunity, a chance to elevate our entire race out of the gutter and back to where we belong.”
The clamor of the crowd was hopeful. Phoenix was the first one to join me on stage, shaking my hand. Cicero wasn’t far behind. The other jinn followed suit. I kept Liv tucked into my side as people pushed forward to show their allegiance. Mears was the last one through. He shook my hand, but never stopped glaring at Liv. I thought about killing him as an example, but I needed his people, so I satisfied myself with squeezing his hand until he looked at me and passing along a threat with my eyes.
As people departed, Olivia and I ascended to my office once more, Baker on our heels. He shut the door to my office behind us, and I scooped Liv into my arms and twirled her around as she objected.
“Did you know she could do that? I didn’t know she could do that,” Baker said, amazed.