Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1)

by Rasmussen, Jen

  “But nobody’s seen Megaira since the hearing,” Cora added.

  “Did you tell Alecto that?” Thea asked.

  “Yeah. She didn’t take it well. Hey, I have to go, but I’m going to be getting in touch at regular times. Pete has all the information. Alecto said I should get in touch with Nana too, if I can do it without looking suspicious. So don’t worry about anything, we’re assembling quite the team here.”

  They decided that Nero’s RDM experience was the most useful weapon they had. Cora’s assistance in bringing Thea down had given them an opening with Graves, and over the next few weeks, Nero gradually widened it with hints that he didn’t see what was so wrong about developing new technologies and exploring new markets. He had skills they needed and was apparently sympathetic to their cause. Eventually he was brought into the fold enough to gather some information.

  As they’d suspected, Stefan was in on the conspiracy. Iren and Langdon, it seemed, were not. The false withdrawals had been planted in the account sheets for Iren to find.

  Alecto was relieved that at least some of the board was loyal. But she grew more and more anxious for her sister as the days went by without any word. Nana kept trying to have visions of Megaira, but so far nobody had any idea where she might be.

  “Uncle Graves wasn’t able to bring her over to his side after all, and he hurt her,” Alecto said.

  “He didn’t hurt you,” Thea pointed out. “He won’t hurt her either. But maybe he’s keeping her out of the way for now, somewhere she can’t interfere. And that means the best thing we can do for her is keep going with the plan and stop Graves.”

  They got Nana to give Graves the impression that Alecto had fled out west somewhere, with a generous allowance from Thea, who had likewise disappeared.

  After that first day at the cabin, both Flannery and Aunt Bridget stayed away, in case they were being watched. But Bridget sent baskets of muffins through Pete, when he came to drop off groceries and pass on messages from Cora and Nero.

  Despite practicing with Alecto every day, Thea only managed to move things—a coffee cup, a branch, and Pete’s mother’s lobster trap—three times. She focused, she visualized, and finally she managed to make them fly. But not for very long.

  She knew Alecto thought it was because Thea was weak, and although she didn’t admit it, Thea suspected Alecto was right. She’d come a long way since the night she’d met Graves in Aunt Bridget’s barn, further than she’d have imagined she could. But she wasn’t a superhero. Compelling inanimate objects to do her bidding was all well and good for somebody like Alecto, but Thea doubted it would ever happen for her.

  After five weeks at Pete’s cabin, they decided it was time to strike. They’d been gone long enough for Graves to relax a little. Nero had collected what emails and other evidence he could, although he still didn’t have their full trust, and Graves was generally careful about putting things in writing. And there were no patients left in the lab, which meant there were no round-the-clock employees. It would be deserted at night except for a guard or two.

  It would be up to Alecto and Thea to destroy the lab, after searching it for more evidence against Graves. Cora was responsible for ferreting out any backups that might be in the Hexing House network. Nero would handle the RDM building on campus to make sure there was no trace of the superhex remaining.

  Thea and Alecto went over all the details Flannery had given them about the lab and the neighborhood it was in. Pete armed them with guns, but Thea asked Alecto how she planned to destroy the building itself.

  “What do you think I’ve been working with you every day for?” Alecto asked. “The pleasure of your company? We blow up the furnace. The fire looks like an accident, and our work there is done with minimal intrusion and investigation. The last thing I need is anyone from the human world on my back about the fact that we had an illegal lab running in a residential area.”

  “Wait. How does blowing something up count as telekinesis?” asked Thea.

  Alecto dismissed this. “Moving it, superheating it. Same concept.”

  Thea didn’t see how they were the same at all, but that was Alecto’s problem.

  They were down to deciding on an exact date and time, when Pete came to the cabin to tell them that Cora had missed her appointed call.

  Thea wasn’t worried. Having recently played the role of an undercover agent herself, she knew there were bound to be times when Cora just couldn’t get away.

  She reminded herself of this when Cora didn’t call the next day, either.

  But by the third day, it was disquieting.

  By the fourth, it was downright alarming.

  Thea remembered what Nana had said about the flower friends not being a piece of her anymore, and struggled to think of something she could use in the old book’s place. It was a little sad to realize that there was really nothing that was dear to her anymore, nothing she’d put a part of herself into.

  With nothing to use to encourage visions but her own frustrated will, she didn’t hold out much hope of seeing what had happened to Cora, or what was going on inside Hexing House.

  After another day with no word, Thea and Alecto decided they couldn’t wait anymore. Thea, on the grounds that she’d been there before, would go to the lab as planned, search for any further evidence that would convict Graves, and then set the house on fire. Alecto, on the grounds that she was undoubtedly the better fighter, would go to Hexing House, find Cora and Nero, and if necessary, rescue them.

  “And how do I set the house on fire if you’re not there to blow up the furnace for me with your special mind magic?” Thea asked. “Flying around with a gas can seems kind of inconvenient.”

  “I’ve got some fireworks left from July,” Pete said. “If you can get to the furnace and put a few under it, that’ll probably do it.”

  So when Thea flew off that night, it was with one of Pete’s handguns in one pocket, and a wad of fireworks in the other. Thanks to Flannery, she knew of a back way into the neighborhood that would keep her under cover until she was almost directly behind the house.

  Nero had given them the alarm code; Thea could only hope it hadn’t changed since they’d lost communication with their friends on the inside. She punched in the numbers and flinched, half expecting a wailing alert. But she only heard three soft chimes, indicating it was disarmed.

  She went inside and closed the door behind her, then stood waiting for some sign of on-site guards who had heard her. There was none. Surely they had some security besides that alarm? Nero had said there would probably be guards.

  Thea wished she had some hexes with her. She wasn’t at all confident of her skills with the gun. And she, like Alecto, didn’t want to seriously hurt another fury if she could help it.

  After a minute of silence, she decided she’d better get on with it. She’d never been on the first floor, and walked slowly through the rooms, most of which seemed like offices of one kind or another. Thea turned on every computer she found, but they were all password protected. There were no filing cabinets or hard copies of anything incriminating.

  Finally she hit a stroke of luck: one of the computers was still on. Thea moved the mouse and the screen came back to life, with no password required.

  She sat and started going through files, but found little she could understand. She wished she’d thought to bring a flash drive to put everything on, so people smarter than her could sort through it later. But then, she was here to destroy the superhex data, not make another copy of it. All she needed was some proof of Graves’s involvement first.

  Thea opened the email application and began reading through the messages. Apparently the computer belonged to a fury named Lucien, who spent a lot of time having three-way conversations about human football with two of his buddies.

  And when she finally did find something incriminating, it came not from Graves, but from Megaira.

  I need a better ETA on the hex shield, it read, and a more aggressive schedule
for closing down the site. Our loose ends are still in the area should we need to use them again, but we’d much prefer to tie them off.

  Thea reread it twice. More aggressive schedule… loose ends… need to use them again.

  That was why they’d been able to escape so easily. Graves and Megaira knew exactly where Thea and Alecto were, and they weren’t leaving them alone out of love for Alecto, or because of Graves’s promise to Cora. The superhex wasn’t finished yet. They still needed the lab. And for as long as the lab was open, they wanted to have their scapegoats handy, in case they were discovered again.

  But we’d much prefer to tie them off.

  “I’ll give them points for boldness, anyway,” Thea muttered as she looked around the office. It would kill Alecto to see that this had come from Megaira, but Thea had come for evidence, and this definitely qualified. She spotted the printer on a low shelf near the window and turned it on.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Thea hadn’t heard it in a while, but she had no problem recognizing Philip’s greasy, sneering voice.

  Too close.

  So close, in fact, that there was a gun against the back of Thea’s neck before he finished speaking. She’d been glad of her own silent fury’s feet, but that was a double edged sword.

  “Wings in, arms out,” Philip said. “Flatten those wings against your back.”

  She should flap her wings out, try to knock him down. But it was risky. Philip wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her if he was given the chance.

  The moment passed while she hesitated. Thea heard the clink of a chain as something was clipped to the talon atop her left wing, then her right. Her wings were cuffed together.

  “Now your hands behind your back.”

  Philip cuffed her wrists, too. After a few nauseating moments of his hands on her, he had Pete’s gun and the fireworks. He laughed at the latter.

  “This is your idea of a weapon? Kind of fun to use a gun, though, I’ll give you that. They gave them to us because of you, actually. In case someone hex resistant breaks in. You really didn’t think we were watching for you? I get a text alert if the alarm is disarmed when it shouldn’t be.”

  Before Thea could answer, there was a clatter and shout from outside the room.

  “Philip!”

  Nero came in, dragging Elon behind him. Elon didn’t resist. He had a dopey smile on his face that suggested he’d been hexed with serenity.

  “What are you doing here?” Philip asked.

  Thea’s heart leapt at the sight of her friend, although she forced herself to continue slouching and looking defeated. Surely this was a ruse and Nero was there to rescue her. She hoped.

  “Do you have any more restraints?” Nero asked Philip. “He was coming in after her.” He deposited Elon on the floor just inside the door and stepped toward Philip. Philip leaned around Nero to look at Elon.

  But Elon wasn’t on the floor anymore. He’d sprung up, a hex box in his hand. Before Philip could raise his gun, Elon hexed him with what felt to Thea like sloth.

  Philip was asleep within seconds.

  There wasn’t time for Thea to thank Nero and Elon properly. They barely had her out of the restraints before they heard a door slam, then footsteps thundering. Some sounded like they were going down to the basement. Others—it was impossible to tell how many—were running around the first floor.

  Nero rushed toward the door, gesturing for the others to follow, but their way was blocked by three guards. Furies, not human.

  And they all had hexes.

  One of them inflicted his hex before anyone could react, and Nero sat down, smiling.

  But Elon was faster than that. He’d tackled one of the guards before he had a chance to hex him. While they grappled with one another on the floor, the third guard sent his hex at Thea.

  Thanks to her time in this very place, she knew just what to do with it.

  It was much easier than it had been with Hex Nine. With no hesitation, Thea sensed the hex—sloth—held it, then shot it back at the guard. Before long, he was asleep beside Philip.

  Elon had managed to wrench the hex box away from the guard he was fighting with, and he joined his colleague.

  But it seemed the third one, the one who had hexed Nero, was tired of playing with hexes. There was a gunshot. Elon shouted and fell.

  Thea dove at the guard, claws out. He raised the gun at the same time.

  But when the shot came, it didn’t come from the guard. Elon, still on the floor, had taken Philip’s gun and shot the guard in the back of the knee. The guard collapsed to the floor, screaming.

  There were shouts and more footsteps coming up from below. The shots had drawn the guards who had gone down to the basement. Figuring she had two seconds, three at most, Thea took in the screaming guard, the blood pouring from Elon’s leg, Nero’s smile.

  She dropped down beside Nero and forced herself to focus. Sloth? No. It was serenity. Just as she’d done the day she met him, Thea waved a hand, as if she was waving cobwebs away.

  Nero blinked.

  “Listen to me,” Thea shouted in his face. “Get Elon out of here, he’s been shot in the thigh, he’s going to need medical attention fast. I’ll catch up.”

  Although clearly disoriented, Nero got to his feet. “What are you going to do?”

  “What I came to do.”

  Before she even finished speaking, two more guards were in the doorway. There was no time to do anything—including run. Thea flew after Nero and Elon, escaping the lab for the second time the same way she had the first: through the window.

  Unfortunately, this time the guards had wings, too. One of them peeled off after Nero and Elon, but the other was close behind Thea as she circled the house. She saw what she wanted and shot forward—too fast. She hit a slope in the roof hard and nearly fell before she managed to latch onto the shingles with the claws and talons of one hand and wing.

  Luckily, the attic vent was covered only with a flimsy screen, easily smashed in with a kick from her good leg. Still clinging to the roof, balanced precariously, Thea leaned over as far as she could, until her head was inside.

  Something grabbed hold of her wing. Thea turned to see the guard who had been chasing her, raising his gun.

  Nero slammed into him from the side and the two of them went tumbling away.

  Struggling for control over her frantic thoughts, Thea turned back to the attic, and made herself focus on the furnace.

  There was no time to regret that Philip still had Pete’s fireworks. Or to wonder if Alecto was right, and some part of Thea would always be weak.

  There was no time to doubt.

  Burn, witch.

  Thea saw her mother’s face, contorted with disgust. She saw the ghost of Bobby Higgins riding Mr. Delacroix’s back. She saw Tatiana Tulip with blood on her face, and the headless girl with the balloon.

  She saw the furnace in flames.

  Burn.

  And then it was.

  “Thea!”

  Someone was slapping her face, only sort-of gently. Thea opened her eyes and saw Nero’s face above her. She immediately cried out as she became aware of pain in her arm. By the feel of it, it was broken.

  “What happened?” She looked around and saw grass and dirt and not much else. There was an orange light in the sky. “Where are we?”

  Nero’s words were unintelligible. Her ears were ringing too loudly.

  “What?”

  “Behind the house!” he shouted. “I have to go back inside. I think the guards we hexed were still in there.”

  “It’s burning?”

  He almost laughed. “Yeah, it’s burning, all right. Furnace exploded. You got thrown.”

  Thea sat up, wobbled, fell. For the first time, she saw Elon beside her, a makeshift bandage around his leg that had been made from half his shirt.

  “Why didn’t you take him back?” Thea asked, but Nero was already flying back to the house.

  It was engu
lfed in flames, the roof so completely that Thea felt sure it would collapse any second. They had no time to lose. She managed to get to her feet, and experimentally opened her wings. They were sore, but didn’t seem injured. She hurried after Nero.

  “You’ll only slow me down,” he said when he saw her.

  “No, actually, I’ll speed things up. You’ll have to drag them out one at a time if you do it. I can remove the hexes.”

  Nero flew through the window he’d opened when they escaped. The two guards they’d hexed were on the floor, but there was no sign of the one with the wounded knee, or of Philip. Thea followed Nero into the burning room and leaned over the closest guard to her. She sensed the sloth, touched it with her mind, pulled it away. She turned and did the same to the other.

  There was a crash behind her as part of the ceiling caved in, blocking off the window they’d just come through. It was louder than she’d realized a fire would be. The whole room seemed to be roaring, and her throat closed with smoke. Thea and Nero got the guards to their feet, then half ran, half flew out of the room and into the hallway beyond.

  There was no way through the fire.

  Another crash, and a piece of wall hit one of the guards. He shrieked as his arm and part of his wing lit up. Without thinking, Thea shot out a wing, batting at the flames. She managed to put them out, but she wasn’t sure she’d really prolonged his life.

  They were trapped, and choking on smoke.

  “In here!” Nero shouted. He dove through a doorway into a larger room with several desks. Metal desks. They were dangerously hot, but Nero rolled under one of them and dragged the guard he was helping with him.

  “The roof is coming down!” he shouted, and Thea understood. This room was at the edge of the house. She’d seen several pieces of ceiling fall already. When the roof collapsed, as it was clearly about to do, they might be sheltered enough here to escape through the gap it left.