“Sounds like you’ve considered all your options.” I was glad there was a door between us. “So where’ve you been all this time? I had quite the adventure trying to catch up to you.”
“I was touring.”
I picked at the door with my finger, trying to decide which question to ask first. “Why do they keep you around? Technically you’re not one of them.”
“I’m good company.”
I laughed. “Oh, come on now. I know you better than that, so be honest. Why haven’t they killed you yet, or at the very least turned you?”
He sat up at this, his face twisting into a scowl. “If you think you’re so smart, why don’t you tell me?”
I thought about this out loud. “There’s really only one reason. You must have something on Cyrus.” My brain continued to spin. “No, that wouldn’t matter. At this point he couldn’t care less what others think about him.” I tapped on the door with my fingernails. “Maybe you have something of his, something important.”
Jackson’s scowl turned to a smile.
“That’s it, isn’t it?”
“No Vyken would ever mess with me. I’m under Cyrus’s protection.”
“I don’t think he’s protecting you. He’s only keeping you around long enough to get back whatever you took from him.” I held onto the bars. “So what is it? What could you possibly have that Cyrus wants?”
He sat up, peering at me sideways while his elbows rested on his knees. “Now why would I tell you that? The Auras have never done anything for me.”
“What do you want?”
He stood and crossed the room to me. “I need cash and lots of it. I have to skip town and fast.”
“What’s the rush?”
“Cyrus. He’s going to have me out of here in no time—”
“Not possible.”
“—and when he does, he’s going to think I told you something valuable. He’ll drag the truth out of me any way he can.”
“Why hasn’t he done that already?” I asked.
“Because we had a deal, and I helped him from inside Lucent.”
“By getting other Guardians to switch sides.”
The corner of his mouth rose. “Among other things, but our arrangement was supposed to end tonight. I’d give him what he wanted, and he’d pay me an insane amount of money to leave forever. I was planning to go to Amsterdam, but now that’s all changed, thanks to you. And if I don’t get out of here, like within the next few hours, I’m a dead man.”
I thought about this. If what he was saying were true, then we could have all the dirt on Cyrus, including where he was hiding Sophie and the other Auras. “I’m sure the Auran Council will oblige, but first you have to give me something so I know you actually have something they will want.”
He stood up and brushed his hands off. “Deal.”
“So what is it?”
He walked toward me slowly. “I know where the witches are. I hid them.”
“Witches?”
“That’s all I’m going to say. Get me a bunch of money, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. And hurry. There’s not much time.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You keep talking like you’re leaving. No one’s going to get you out of here.”
“Maybe it’s you who should be leaving.” His gaze slowly met mine, and I shivered. “There’s a storm coming, and anyone within a twenty-mile radius of this place isn’t going to survive. In a way, I feel sorry for you girls. You simply have no idea.”
“Don’t feel sorry for us. It’s you that should be worried.”
“Ah, feisty Llona. You think you’re so strong, but your world’s about to be turned upside down.” He laughed.
Air caught in my chest, and I instantly thought of Christian. “What do you know?”
He laughed harder and said, “I wish I could be there to see your face.”
A familiar anger, burning from my Vyken half, made me punch the door. “Tell me!”
“What’s going on?” Liam said from behind me.
I turned around, my chest heaving. “This jerk’s telling lies.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Jackson said from within his cell. I hit the door again.
Liam took hold of my arm and pulled me toward the stairs at the end of the hallway. “You okay?”
“I was actually feeling pretty good till he got me all riled up.”
He let go of my arm. “You felt good?”
I nodded and smiled a little, despite the conversation with Jackson. “Yes. Better than I’ve felt in a long time. Thanks for letting me crash in your room. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.”
“Not at all. I’m just glad you’re feeling better. I’d say you even look better.”
“I didn’t realize I was looking bad.”
His smile faded. “Not bad, just sad.”
I cleared my throat and glanced away. “What time is it?”
Liam turned up the stairs. “Late. Everyone’s been asking for you. I’m glad you’re awake, because I was out of excuses.”
I bounded after him, trying to decide whether to tell him about Jackson now or when we were all together with Dr. Han. “Did I miss breakfast?”
“And lunch and dinner.”
“You mean I slept a whole day and night?”
“I always said you were lazy.” He grinned and dodged my lazy punch.
I followed Liam into Cyrus’s office. My smile disappeared. Once again, painful images tried to resurface, and I stumbled, but this time I caught myself on the desk.
Liam looked back at me. “You good?”
I nodded and took a deep breath. “I’ll get used to it.” As soon as my head cleared, I swallowed and said, “Before we go down there, I have to tell you what Jackson said.”
“Go on.”
“Something’s been bothering me for a while. I couldn’t ever understand why Cyrus treated Jackson like his right-hand guy. I mean, I know Cyrus has other Guardians working for him, but he doesn’t keep them as close as Jackson.”
Liam took two steps toward me.
“When I was talking to Jackson just now, he was pretty convinced that Cyrus was going to bust him out of here as soon as possible to keep him from talking. And I’ll admit, he did seem a little spooked.”
“But that’s impossible! The tunnel door is sealed, which means someone would have to open it from the inside or come through the school, passing countless Auras. Besides, Arik and Aaron are downstairs.”
“I agree. I’m not convinced that Cyrus is coming for him, but Jackson is sure of it.”
“So what does he want?” Liam asked.
“He wants money and his freedom in exchange for telling us everything, including where Cyrus is holding the girls.”
“But how can we trust him?”
I paused for a moment, thinking back to our conversation, “He said he knows where the witches are, that he hid them for leverage over Cyrus and to get a lot of money.”
“Witches? As in the three witches who originally created the Shadow?”
“He wouldn’t say anything else, but, yeah, I assume so. We need to contact the Council right away and tell them to give Jackson whatever he wants.”
Liam was pacing the room, seemingly deep in thought.
“Liam?”
He turned around. “You can tell the Council this morning. They’re here.”
“Here? Why?”
“Remember? The meeting about Lucent’s security and who should take Cyrus’s place as president?”
I groaned, frustrated that I had slept so much. I had wanted to prepare some sort of speech, something motivational that would make them change their minds about Auras learning to fight, but so much for that. It was a small hope I had anyway.
“Don’t worry about it,” Liam said. “You can figure out what to say during breakfast. And I’ll find Dr. Han and tell him about Jackson. I think it should be him that requests the Council’s help in giving Jackson whatever he wants.”
I nodded in agreement and followed him from the room. A request like that would have to come from someone inside their circle. The Auran Council consisted of nine members, three from each Auran school. In addition to Lucent, there was Ellie Academy in Ireland and Ruddy Academy in Australia. I was still upset at them for waiting so long to have this meeting. They should’ve met the day after Cyrus attacked Lucent. We were lucky we hadn’t been attacked again.
The moment I walked into the dining room with Liam at my side, all eyes turned on me. It reminded me of my first day. Except this time I was a different person. Stronger and more focused, I was not the angry, confused girl who didn’t know what was happening to her.
And this time was also different because this time I had friends. They surrounded me now. Liam left me alone and joined the twins at a nearby table.
Tessa hugged me first. “It’s so good to see you!”
I squeezed her back. She looked different. Her hair was cut into a bob, and she was wearing normal clothes, fashionable even. But more than that, she looked happy.
Tessa and I had grown close over the last several months, which was rare because she was a Lizen. They were supposed to serve Auras and nothing more, but, like many things at Lucent, I thought that rule old fashioned and, honestly, stupid.
I glanced around at the other Lizen women as they began to serve dinner to the Auran girls. They too looked better, less depressed. As soon as Cyrus was gone, Dr. Han had announced that Lizens would be paid for their work if they chose to stay at Lucent. Most did. Tessa, however, only worked three days a week. The other days she attended a local college even though she was only seventeen. I couldn’t be more proud of her.
“My turn, hog,” Kiera said, pushing Tessa out of the way. Kiera hugged me hard. She’d grown stronger. Good. She pulled away from me.
“Sleeping the day away didn’t do you any justice,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “What happened to your hair?”
“As if I could change it.” I attempted to smooth my long blonde hair, wishing again that I could cut or dye it, but, as Abigail, the school nurse, once told me, “Having Light in our blood sometimes changes our outward appearance. Consider it a birth mark.”
We moved to Liam’s table. Everyone avoided the seat next to him. It was just a given that it was meant for me. May sat on my left, and next to her was Aaron. He was leaning toward her while she giggled about something he was saying. They seemed a lot closer than when I left. Something I’d have to ask her about later.
“Are you ready for today?” Arik, who was sitting on the other side of Aaron, asked me through a huge bite of pancakes.
“Not really, but I’ll think of something to say.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to wing it,” May said.
I sort of smiled and shrugged.
May shook her head. “That’s not good.”
“I know! I’ll probably say something I’ll totally regret and end up offending everyone on the Council.”
“That was bound to happen either way,” Liam said, and then he leaned in closer and added, “Dr. Han’s right over there. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded and swirled my fork through the syrup on my plate, thinking of what I should say to the Council. I couldn’t screw this up. If I could get them to back me up, then a lot more girls would join my class.
Before I knew it, breakfast was over.
“You’ll do great,” Liam whispered to me. I looked up, surprised to see that everyone was gone from our table. “Dr. Han’s waiting for us.”
I took a deep breath and stood up. I may not have known exactly what I was going to say, but I couldn’t wait to speak. Lucent Academy had to change if we were to survive.
FIVE
It was a long walk down the foyer of Chadni Hall and to the boardroom—a room I’d never been in before. Many of the students were crowded in the hall, probably all wishing they would be invited inside. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. I wished I could’ve had more time. I would’ve dressed nicer.
“Do I look okay for something like this?” I asked Liam.
Liam looked me up and down.
“Well?”
He laughed. “How would I know? I think you look great.”
“You’re useless,” I said and was about to go inside the room that was buzzing with conversation, but before I could, Dr. Han stopped me.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
“The Council doesn’t see things the way you do. Not even close, so don’t expect any major changes.”
I shook my head, refusing to believe that after everything that had happened, the Council wouldn’t be willing to do more, especially now that we had Jackson, who could tell us everything about Cyrus. “Let’s just get this done. Maybe they’ll surprise you.”
Before he could say more, I turned and walked into the room. The moment I did, all eyes turned on me, and I wondered if Dr. Han was right.
The boardroom was not at all what I expected. It looked more like some kind of theatrical stage setting with nine wooden chairs, ornately carved as if they were thrones made for kings and queens. The chairs were arranged in a wide circle with one single chair in the center. On the outside of the circle, wooden bleachers, six rows up, lined the walls. They were seated with faculty. I spotted Abigail and Mrs. Crawford sitting next to each other. Mrs. Crawford smiled at me encouragingly.
Dr. Han came up next to me while Liam took a nearby seat. I turned to him and whispered, “You call this a boardroom?”
“Technically it’s the ‘Words of Enlightenment’ room, but you’ll soon see why I call it the ‘bored’ room.” He winked at me and walked by. I stared after him, shocked and amused. There was still so much I didn’t know about the small Chinese man.
A minute later I was sitting on the first row next to Liam, who was there to represent the Deific. I glanced around, looking for any other students, but I was the only one.
Liam bumped my shoulder with his. “Keep your cool, okay?”
“I will if you will.”
Thirty minutes later I understood why Dr. Han called it the bored room. I was so bored that twice now, Liam had had to stop me from falling asleep. But my boredom quickly turned to anger the longer they went without mentioning Sophie and the other girls who were taken. Instead, the Council discussed everything from renovations to possibly eliminating sugar from the Auras’ diet.
I studied the three from Ruddy Academy in Australia. Two women and one male. The male reminded me a little of Liam. He was tall with dark hair, but with a long face and gray eyes. His disposition was relaxed, unlike the woman next to him. I wondered what special ability he had to be on the Auran Council. He didn’t look like a Fury, but neither did Dr. Han. All three were leaning forward; one of them, a woman with brown hair, gripped the chair’s armrest tightly. The current conversation about increasing the girls’ extracurricular activities must have really bothered her.
The other three Council members from Ellie Academy were all females. Two of them were redheads and—I squinted to get a better look—had several hairs coming out from identical moles on their right cheeks. They must have been sisters. The third female had gentler features and kind eyes.
As for Lucent’s Council members, there was just Dr. Han, an empty seat on each side of him. Both Cyrus and Sophie used to be members, but all that changed when Cyrus kidnapped her.
“Our next order of business is replacing Cyrus as head of the Council,” one of the redheaded Irish women said. Above her, at the top of her chair, a plaque read, “Alice Jackman.”
I straightened in my seat. It’s about time they talked about what really mattered. What was wrong with these people?
“It seems to me,” the only other male—Bartholomew, according to his chair—said, “that our selection should not come from Lucent Academy. The school is in disarray and until some order is restored, we need a more qualified candidate.”
The kind-looking woman from Ruddy—her name was Anne—turned to Dr. Han. “What say you?”
Dr. Han entwined his fingers. “I am in agreement.”
I pursed my lips, wishing he had fought harder to at least be a candidate. As far as I was concerned, he would be the best.
It took another twenty minutes for the Council to unanimously agree that the tense-looking woman from Ireland, Nora, would be the new head. She graciously accepted with a small smile and a pat of her brown hair.
“Now that we’ve assigned a new president, we need to announce who will take Cyrus’s place on the Council,” Alice said. “Nora, I’ll let you take control of this meeting as the new president.”
“Thank you, Alice.” She cleared her throat. “A week ago, Dr. Han provided us with potential candidates from Lucent’s staff members. We reviewed each candidate carefully and have voted. The new member of the Council is,” she looked around, but only at the members of the circle and not at the audience around her, “Mrs. Rebecca Crawford.”
The audience gasped, but I wasn’t at all surprised. I glanced over at Mrs. Crawford, who looked shocked, and smiled. I liked her. She was there when Vykens attacked Lucent Academy, fighting with the rest of us. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect person to be placed on the Council.
“Rebecca,” Nora said, “please take your rightful position with the Council.”
As Mrs. Crawford stood up, someone else also stood. Abigail, the school’s nurse. All eyes turned on her, waiting for some kind of explanation as to why she was standing, but no one received an answer. She simply walked by Mrs. Crawford and stormed out of the room without a glance at anyone.
“What’s that all about?” Liam whispered next to me.
I shrugged my shoulders.
Mrs. Crawford appeared hurt by Abigail’s actions, but when Nora urged her forward, she took her seat inside the circle, on the right side of Dr. Han.
“Now to discuss a most grievous topic. Finding Sophie,” Nora said, eyeing everyone in the circle. “Dr. Han, could you please give us an update of your progress?”
Dr. Han leaned back in his seat. “We are working closely with the Deific, specifically Liam. He and Llona, her niece, have been searching tirelessly.”
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