Valor: The Custos Saga

by Jessica Tastet

  Larkin stood before her when she reopened them. “The council members would like a formal introduction.”

  Lysander squeezed her hand. “Remember who you really are.”

  Angelica squeezed in return and then stumbled after Larkin. The question these days seemed to be whom and what she was.

  Larkin herded her toward the suits, who she greeted with a twitching smile.

  “Angelica Acacia meet Ms. Pilar Lingraf, Mr. Benjamin Sury, Mr. Mathew Donovan, and of course, Frederick Bartlett.”

  Ms. Lingraf’s crooked nose stood high in the air as she nodded. The handsome tower on her side smiled warmly, while the balding fellow waited for Benjamin before smiling. Frederick stared down on her as if she were his prey. He really was unsettling.

  Pilar’s voice scratched Angelica’s ears. “Arthur sends his apologies for his unavailableness. He’s a bit under the weather at the moment.”

  Benjamin shook her hand with an extra firm grip that numbed her fingers for a moment. With his touch, she sensed his telepathy ability. He couldn’t hear her thoughts although he attempted a peek. “I look forward to working with you. You must come study in France with us and acquaint yourself with our history,” he said, peering into her eyes, unblinking.

  Such an inconvenience. We could have done this without the girl.

  Angelica looked to Pilar, whose thoughts transmitted clearly through the circle.

  He’ll continue killing the girls if we don’t appoint someone. She’s as good as any. Besides she may actually be strong enough to survive this.

  Angelica glanced toward Benjamin, who smiled despite his thoughts.

  Could they not tell they were broadcasting to everyone? Something was wrong here.

  Easily the most handsome of the bunch, Benjamin’s chestnut eyes sparkled with a confidence in himself. His broad chest and tapering waist spoke of an exercise regiment, and his chestnut hair cascaded over his forehead in that fake natural way. He took care of himself and didn’t give the impression he’d ever be lax with his abilities.

  Larkin chuckled, his gaze darting around the room. He also projected his mind into the circle. He wanted everyone to see him with Angelica, so they’d think he represented her. “I believe Angelica’s first priority will be to take care of our New Orleans problem.”

  Frederick focused on her. Sadness sagged and aged his body. “As Valor, Angelica will make the decisions about what is important.”

  Angelica was in control now and they were afraid. Angelica searched each of them and felt the worry bouncing around their brain waves. Desperation had forced their hand, but they didn’t want change nor did they want to give up control. Benjamin’s thoughts had revealed it all. They were giving her up as a sacrifice to protect themselves.

  Larkin cleared his throat. “Let’s enjoy tonight and deal with business first thing tomorrow. We have so little to celebrate these days, we should enjoy the moment. Angelica, if you’d do me the honor, there were several others who requested introductions.”

  She nodded formally toward the council members and trailed behind Larkin. They drifted from group to group, making introductions that Angelica could not remember. Several stood out. Ms. Maggie lost her son in this “hard war,” but Ms. Sara Crow believed it the natural universal order. A dumpy Mark Finnigan stuttered and blushed over each word of his good luck speech, and an overzealous Captain Watt pushed for a Vindica Inquisition. He reckoned they should force all the bad seeds into a deep hole with no way out. Several glanced in their direction as his voice reached a creshindo and his hands flailed in the air.

  While trying to avoid a flaying, she noted Mark and Serena arguing in the corner. Tears rolled down Serena’s face, while Mark attempted to block her from the view of the room. There were too many voices and thoughts to hear theirs, so she attempted to read lips. Serena’s mumbled, but Mark used phrases like need to stop, spectacle, Vindica questioned, and Valor. Angelica assumed he was worried about gossip.

  With the distraction, she nearly missed Captain Watt’s elbow jarring her in the face. She stepped back catching Lysander staring at her with an icy stare as he leaned against the doorway.

  She excused herself at the next break in the story and felt the stares on her back as she approached Lysander.

  Lysander did not blink or warm at her approach. “Why don’t we step outside to discuss what’s bothering you.”

  He nodded, and she headed down the hall toward the patio. Outside the kitchen door, the sky wrapped them in its pinpricked cloth. Angelica hugged herself against the chilled air.

  The idea came over her slowly, and then picked up speed. She’d been named Valor of these people. She didn’t even know what it meant exactly, but it felt heavy, as if it anchored her to the ground.

  “I can’t believe this,” she mumbled into the air.

  Lysander folded his arms across his chest, frowning. “You have to tell them they’ve made a mistake. Tell them Serena has trained for it, and she should be the one.”

  The chill spread through her. “I do?”

  Lysander paced in front of her. “You can approach the council again and explain that you don’t want to be Valor. They’ll listen, and Mr. Luke can make another announcement. It’s not too late.”

  Angelica looked away from him. “Why?”

  Lysander stopped pacing. She could feel his eyes on her. “It doesn’t matter who they name as Valor as long it’s not you.”

  “Why can’t it be me?”

  “Because he’ll come after you.”

  Her insides exhaled. She could handle worried. “He’s going to come after me anyway. Besides, Serena would make an awful Valor.”

  “Damn it, Angelica. This is serious.”

  She smiled. “I know.”

  Lysander grabbed her arm. “Why do you want this?”

  Angelica swallowed hard against the pain that rose in her throat. It came down to all the death around her. All the times when she was just a kid and couldn’t prevent it. And something was coming, worse than Reximortum, according to Kline. She couldn’t allow more people to die without at least trying to do something. She had to believe that Lily had protected her for this moment.

  “Lysander, there’s something I haven’t told you yet,” she said. “My mother was Lily Vale, Reximortum’s wife.”

  “What?” he asked, his face drawing back.

  “I’m Lily’s daughter. She hid me away when I was born because she believed I was Valor.”

  “And you’re just telling me this now.”

  “I… I don’t know when else I was supposed to tell you.”

  He closed his eyes, and Angelica could swear he was counting.

  “That doesn’t mean you have to be Valor.” Lysander gritted his teeth. “My family… I don’t believe in this prophecy. It’s just another way the Vindica refuses to protect itself. Why would you want to be sacrificed for them?”

  Frustration grew and steadily rolled through her. “Innocent people died so I could be here today. I’m not going to decide that my life matters more than theirs. I can’t… I can’t do what Lily did. I need to try and fix this.”

  Her chest compressed as the words sprang to life before her. She couldn’t imagine why Lily had made all the decisions that she’d made and allowed all those people to die to protect her. But Angelica felt those people weighing in her conscious now. She didn’t need to be Valor to fight back, but she sensed the availability of knowledge would be there to help her chances. She needed to make things right.

  Lysander stepped back from her. “I need time to… I just need some time. I can’t believe you kept something this important from me. How do I know there aren’t all these other big secrets?”

  Lysander turned and strolled toward the door. Her eyes burned and her chest swelled. Her fingers sought the cold comfort of the amulet around her neck.

  Party noises filtered out as the door swung open and snapped shut. She swiped at the tears before turning around.

  Roxy
stood, staring at her. “Do you plan on hiding when our people need you, too?”

  Angelica straightened her spine. “Which family were you?”

  Anger and pride lit through Roxy. “My mother ran a gift shop, and ya’ll stayed in the attic for six months.”

  Angelica remembered an old wooden bed frame with a lumpy mattress, but there’d been this old doll with yarn hair she’d play with while watching Lily make jewelry. “Ahh, my mother sold her jewelry in the shop.”

  “Yes, and when he came for ya’ll, he found my mother because ya’ll disappeared in the middle of the night. Doesn’t sound like the hero of the Vindica, does it?”

  “I was five.”

  “I was only eight when I lost my mother.”

  “I was seven when I watched mine die.”

  Roxy’s eyes widened a bit, but she hung onto her anger. “Will you run when he comes for you? Will you leave everyone else to die like you did my mother?”

  Angelica exhaled. “Nothing I am going to say tonight will change your mind about me. I’m really sorry you lost your mother. In the end, he found my mother anyway, and I imagine it seems all for nothing to you. I can’t explain why my mother made the decisions she made. What I do know is that I have to do what my mother couldn’t.”

  Angelica stepped toward the door.

  “I won’t let any of my family die for you again.” Roxy called after her.

  Angelica met Rex’s eyes. “I don’t plan on anyone dying for me ever again.”

  Roxy nodded and Angelica continued inside.

  Forty-Seven

  The clock ticked. A chair scraped against a wooden floor somewhere and the silence of the house echoed.

  “Nothing,” Angelica uttered, clutching the pillow and throwing it against the wall.

  Griffen tapped his pen on the notepad. “Maybe you’re trying too hard.”

  “You don’t believe that.”

  “No,” Griffen said, raising the end of the pen to his mouth. “Unfortunately, I think it’s something deeper than that.”

  Angelica had asked Griffen to help her work on her premonitions; particularly she wanted to have a vision connected to Reximortum. After three sessions, she’d had no luck, she’d foreseen an upcoming relationship between Gabney and Griffen, only days away. A particular nasty vision about an upcoming argument between Jack and Griffen as well, but nothing significant. It was as if a block surrounded the future.

  “What about a connection?” Angelica asked, an idea slowly forming.

  “A connection to what though?” Griffen asked, chewing on his pen.

  Angelica sat up looking around the room. “The past.”

  Griffen tilted his head.

  “No, listen. I know it sounds strange, but when I went back to a place from my past, the memories were there. The energy still exists. What I need is a place from Rex’s past that I can connect with.”

  Griffen nodded. He removed the pen from his mouth and scribbled on the page. “I’ll need to do some research, but this could work.”

  “Good,” Angelica said, feeling the softness of the gray leather sofa she sat on. “Now I have something else, but I need you to keep this between the two of us for now.”

  Griffen leaned closer, curiosity overpowering any caution. It’s why Angelica had chosen him.

  “Look at my eyes. Keep looking.” Angelica allowed him a moment to look and then she closed them, took a deep breath, and imagined the pigments rearranging. When she opened her eyelids, her eyes were bright pink.

  “Shit!” Griffen said, pushing backward on his chair.

  Angelica blinked twice and they returned to their sky blue color.

  “How did you do that?”

  Angelica shrugged. “What I need to know is if anyone else can do this? Has anyone else ever been able to do this?”

  Griffen glanced at his file cabinets where Angelica knew the records on every Vindica member were stored. The Vindica Council kept a digital database, but Griffen was old school with technology.

  “I honestly can’t recall a single person being able to and that would certainly be something memorable. I will search the database for you though.”

  “The dilemma is that I didn’t know I could do that until a few days ago. What if others could, but never tried?”

  “It’s certainly a possibility,” Griffen said. “How did you know to try?”

  Angelica grimaced. “Well, let’s just say I met someone who claims to be a friend who wants to train me. He’s dropped in twice on my way back to Royal Street. I have no idea if I can trust him, but he showed me this trick and then once I could do it, he acted weird. He said I shouldn’t have been able to do it unless I was pure Custos.”

  “Well, that’s impossible.”

  “That’s what I said, so there has to be another explanation.”

  Griffen nodded. “I’ll spend the day researching. We can look at those with really strong mind control and ask them to experiment….”

  The doorbell chimed through the house.

  Griffen sighed. “Only John Landon is here now. Everyone else is at work or school.”

  “I’ll go answer it,” Angelica said. “You can get to work. I feel something coming, and I want to be able to see what it is.”

  Griffen nodded, already heading toward his files.

  At the door, Angelica opened it to reveal a full figured woman in a wide brimmed purple hat.

  “Humph,” she uttered. “I’d hoped you’d look more like your mom.”

  “Excuse me?” Angelica asked.

  “Well, invite me in young lady, so we can get to it.” She spoke with her hand on her hip, but she glanced around the street as if looking for someone watching her.

  Angelica stood to the side so she could enter, feeling the woman’s presence fill the foyer.

  John Landon hobbled to the entrance of the tearoom. “Ah, Madame Lulu. To what do we owe this rare visit?”

  “The world falling apart. People going crazy.” Madame Lulu gestured wide with her hand.

  “By all means then.” Landon motioned for her to enter the tearoom. “Come in and let’s talk.”

  Angelica stood in the hall conflicted, unsure of what to do. She wanted to go in and hear whatever was going on, but she respected Landon too much to barge into a private conversation.

  “Well, come on young lady,” Madame Lulu said. “We don’t have time to dally.”

  Angelica followed them in, feeling as if she was back in grade school.

  They hadn’t completely eased into their seats before Madame Lulu began. “I don’t make Vindica business my business, just so you know. I made Rosemary a promise, and I’ve kept it the best I could all these years.”

  Madame Lulu paused, but Landon remained quiet. Angelica followed his lead, although her head filled with questions.

  “I planned to stay away and let things fall as they may.” Her chest heaved upward. “But something has happened, and I don’t like it. It’s not good for anyone- Vindica or Anihi alike.”

  Landon looked to Angelica. “I’m sure the naming of Valor last night has shifted the future.”

  Madame Lulu waved her hand in dismissal. “That was decided twenty-one years ago when she was born. Naming her was ceremonial and for show. Even if the Vindica would have gotten it wrong, she would still ultimately be the one to begin this domino effect.”

  Angelica’s mind raced over all the information, but the woman emitted a vibe of intimidation and Angelica felt it all the way through her core.

  Landon cleared his throat. “So what is it then?”

  “Something seemingly small and insignificant that no one would have seen coming, but let me tell you this, whatever it was, has caused the future to shift.”

  “Shift how?” Landon asked, leaning forward.

  “All the options have disappeared. The Reckoning is upon us now.”

  “What does that mean exactly, the Reckoning?” Angelica asked.

  Madame Lulu glared at her, sen
ding a sharp stab of fear through Angelica with its intensity. “Child, the Reckoning is when the world as we know it ends. There will be war, and with war, the world will discover that Custos hybrids live among them. Fear will reign.”

  Landon rubbed his hand on his cane. “Let’s back up. What options are open?”

  Madame Lulu shook her head. “Everything leads to the Reckoning, but how we get there and our choices have some kind of block on them. Just two days ago, we could see all these strains of choices and some of them bypassed the Reckoning. Something is going on. Something powerful, and it isn’t Reximortum because he dismisses the future. He’ll never have domain over it when he doubts its reliability.”

  “So we are dealing with someone besides Rex.” John Landon sighed. “Maybe he has someone working with him?”

  “What I’d suggest,” Madame Lulu said, standing, “is finding out what has changed. What small thing happened that caused this mess and change it before it really is too late.”

  At this, she narrowed her eyes at Angelica. It was as if she knew something. Angelica squirmed under the intenseness.

  Landon pulled himself up. “Will we hear from you again?”

  Madame Lulu looked down at them through squinted eyes. “I told you I don’t do Vindica business, and I promised Rosemary that I’d watch that girl until she was twenty-one. If our interests cross, we shall see.”

  Landon nodded, his eyes sagging under the sadness.

  Angelica waited until she closed the door behind Madame Lulu before she spoke again.

  “Who is she?” Angelica asked, returning to the tearoom. “And why is she so scary?”

  Landon smiled. “She’s known as the most powerful seer and belongs to the Anihi Custos. Not to be messed with. The fact that she was here is a really bad sign as they despise the Vindica.”

  Angelica could ask several questions, but she felt time was of the essence. She needed to get to the most important… and fast.

  “So I suppose what I need to do is figure out what happened.”

  Landon nodded. “Something we wouldn’t think important that’s happened within the last few days though? I mean, we’ve always known Valor was the first domino to fall for the Reckoning. Some prophecies say that Valor starts the falling. Madame Lulu is a powerful seer but the future does constantly change with our choices. To have the options disappear means that it is something outside of your control because you haven’t even taken action as Valor and that’s what really begins it.”