Katie hadn’t come back to the room.
I hurried down the hall, my phone in hand, taking the front stairs a little too fast and almost tripping before I got to the bottom. The parlor was dark and deserted. I dialed Katie’s number and waited. It went directly to voice mail. A heavy, ominous feeling began to spread outward through my body. I fired off a text to her as I made my way to the kitchen.
The room was also empty. I opened the cellar door.
‘Katie?’
Everything was quiet. I turned and headed back up the stairs to the bedrooms. The bad feeling was rapidly forming into a knot in the center of my chest. I hesitated at the top of the stairs, unsure who was in what room. I took a random guess and knocked on the door next to ours.
‘Yes?’ answered a female voice.
‘Ezzie, it’s Josephine.’
The door opened almost immediately. Esmeralda was dressed in jeans and a new top and her bed was neatly made. I wondered if she’d even slept since we’d been here. She ushered me inside the room and shut the door.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, seeing my expression. ‘Has Sebastian communicated with you?’
‘No,’ I snapped, feeling a rush of frustrated anger that ricocheted in every direction. I wanted to think about Sebastian – so much of me wanted to think only about him – but not now. Not when the bad feeling thrummed inside me like rain pelting a glass window. ‘I’m not here about that. This is about Katie.’
‘Go on,’ said Ezzie with an odd frown.
‘She’s missing,’ I replied. I paced the length of the plush rug beside the bed. ‘I thought maybe she was just ticked at me for making her go back to the inn and not letting her come out to the garden with us. I thought she was avoiding me while she cooled off. I figured she’d just gone to bed. But she’s not in our room.’
‘It’s a big house. Have you checked everywhere?’
I held out my phone. ‘She’s not answering.’
‘Do you think Katie might’ve left the inn?’
‘No,’ I said firmly. ‘She’d never do that. She’s had the crap scared out of her more than I can count since we got here. She’s definitely not going out looking for trouble.’
Even as I spoke, I felt a twinge of doubt. It’s not like we’d had an earth-shattering fight or anything, nothing serious enough that she’d just take a cab and leave. Plus, she’d left all her stuff in our room. But still …
I’m not a Gypsy. They don’t want to eat me.
Katie’s words flashed through my mind. Maybe she wasn’t as scared as I thought. She’d seen shadowen go after us three times in less than two days, but they’d never been after her. She just happened to be with us.
‘Is everyone asleep?’ I asked.
Ezzie sat on the edge of the bed, watching me pace. ‘All except Hugo and his parents. They left a few minutes ago to attend the early church service. They believed it would be less populated, and therefore, they would be less conspicuous.’
‘Sunday service,’ I said quietly, chewing on my nail. During the Gatherings, most Outcasts attended one of the many churches in the city, and then met in the Court of Shadows to kick off our weeklong reunion party, followed by a midnight service.
‘Do you think Katie might have gone with them?’ said Ezzie. ‘Especially if she was seeking to avoid you?’
I pulled up short. ‘Have you seen the way Hugo’s parents look at her? She’s gadje who knows about the shadow world, thanks to me. And I think they only tolerate my presence because of my family.’
‘Perhaps she spoke with them after she returned to the house.’
There was a beat of silence between us. Then, it was as though the same though struck us both simultaneously. We locked gazes. I hadn’t seen Katie after I’d told her to leave. Ezzie and Hugo had been battling the grotesques. What if Katie never made it back inside?
‘The shadowen,’ I breathed.
Ezzie bolted from the bed. I ran after her through the inn, our feet pounding across the wooden floors. We burst through the back door and careened around the porch, taking the back stairs to the garden at break-neck speed.
I rushed to the patch of sunflowers where we’d been hiding, and then searched frantically through the tomato plants. No Katie. I searched up and down the fence while Ezzie took a circuit around the house, her eyes flashing bright silver as she searched the ground and the sky. My heart pounded so hard I could barely breathe, and every breath I took hurt.
I stumbled on a rock and went to my knees. As I regained my balance, I realized it wasn’t a rock at all. I knelt down. A piece of one of the grotesques’ hideous bodies had escaped Nadya Corsi’s Sobrasi powder – a section of a scaled talon. The groties were dead. They couldn’t have done anything to Katie.
But there had been another shadowen here.
‘Oh God,’ I whispered. ‘Please … no …’
I threw the talon far away from me and leapt to my feet. My chest lodged with cold. Anya. We hadn’t killed Anya! I wanted to retch, but I forced my feet to move. I ran hard through the garden, my worry and panic giving me energy and breath.
Esmeralda stood beside the steps to the inn. Her body was completely still, almost like a statue herself. As I reached her, she turned her face slowly towards me. Her eyes were a cold, dull silver, and her mouth was drawn into a rigid line.
‘Ezzie!’ I panted. ‘I know what happened to Katie!’
Her eyes drifted over my shoulder and upward. ‘So do I.’
I turned and followed her gaze. Fifteen feet above our heads, wedged into a thick clump of oak leaves, was a pink, sequined flip-flop.
*
James met us at the kitchen door, bleary-eyed and confused. Ezzie pushed past him into the kitchen, and I did the same. To my surprise, the other Corsis were all gathered there, seated around the kitchen table, each one looking as though they’d just woken up.
‘What’s all the ruckus about?’ asked Kris, rubbing his face.
‘Some of us are trying to sleep,’ said Vincent.
‘The chimera,’ I blurted out. ‘It’s taken Katie!’
‘Wait.’ James shut the door quickly, looking suddenly alert. ‘Are you guys talking about those beasts from last night? I thought they were dead.’
‘Anya escaped.’
Kris shoved back in his chair so hard he left a mark on the floor. His face reddened. ‘We never should’ve let that girl come here with us. There’s too much stuff happening, and a gadje has no place in our business.’
‘Katie’s diddikoi,’ I shot back. ‘And she was my responsibility.’ I put a hand across my mouth, breathing hard through my fingers, until I found the strength to ask. ‘Do you think it … killed her?’
Esmeralda put her hand on my arm. ‘Chimeras would have no craving for gadje. Their sole purpose is revenge on those of Gypsy blood. This wasn’t an accident. Anya took Katie for a reason.’
‘Took her where?’
‘I don’t know.’ Ezzie rubbed her temples. ‘I might be able to track her. My skills are not what they used to be, but I managed to do it before, when Anya and the others first arrived in Sixes.’
‘Okay,’ said James, ‘Let’s go.’
‘No,’ said Ezzie.
He stared at her like she’d just lost her mind. ‘What?’
She crossed her arms and looked around the room, in many ways, like the Ms Lucian I used to know as my teacher. ‘I can’t have a bunch of Corsis getting in my way. You will be too slow and entirely too much to look after.’
Vincent reacted like he’d been slapped. ‘Too much to look after?’
‘I’ve committed to act as your guardian,’ she replied. ‘Which means keeping all of you safe. There are more shadow creatures here in the city than you are accustomed to dealing with in Sixes and, in case you haven’t noticed, they seem to have no trouble finding you.’
‘Maybe,’ said Kris. ‘But why should that stop us? It’s almost daylight now, so I don’t think we have much to worry about.
Besides, it’s not like we’re members of a head family or anything.’
‘But Hugo is,’ she replied, ‘whether he wants to admit it or not. Now that his parents are here, it makes your clan a more prominent target.’
‘We’ve had a lot of close calls already,’ I added.
Ezzie nodded. ‘Kris, you and Vincent need to go to the Court of Shadows and alert Donani. His men need to know what else they’re dealing with. Matthias and Anya were formidable enough when they were gargoyles.’
‘Donani?’ growled James. ‘You can’t be serious.’
I whirled on him. ‘Like it or not, the Marksmen are still the best protection the Outcasts have. This isn’t business as usual, and you know it. My best friend’s out there, maybe hurt. Definitely scared. If something happens to her …’ I clamped my mouth shut, refusing to complete the thought. After a breath, I continued. ‘We need to stop wasting time.’
Ezzie raised an eyebrow at me, and her half-smile returned – it was a pleased, almost smug expression. ‘Josephine’s correct.’
‘Okay,’ said Kris. ‘Me and Vincent will go to the Court.’
Ezzie looked at James. ‘You need to stay here until Hugo and his parents return from the church service. They need to know exactly what’s happened and what is being done.’
‘I’m not getting benched on this one,’ said James defiantly.
Esmeralda glared at him. I stepped between them.
‘No one’s getting benched,’ I said firmly. Then I turned to James and took his large hand in both of mine. He jerked a little in surprise. ‘James,’ I continued calmly. ‘Someone needs to stay here. Someone who can make sure Ferka and Paizi are safe. When Hugo gets back, he’s going to want to know every single detail and we need a reliable source to tell him. Can I count on you to take care of all that?’
My words had the effect I was hoping for. James hesitated. His eyes roamed the room, like he was looking for a reason to turn down my request but couldn’t find one. He let out a resigned huff.
‘Fine. But for the record, Ezzie, I think you need someone with you. You know Hugo won’t be happy when he finds out you went alone.’
Ezzie shrugged. ‘Hugo is very much used to me by now. As for being alone, I’m not.’ She gestured to me. ‘Josephine is more capable for this than the rest of you.’ The guys stared at me with the same curious expression I was sure I was giving Esmeralda. She glanced at the wall clock and continued speaking. ‘Tell Hugo to give us one hour to conduct our search. If you haven’t heard from us by then, he will know what to do.’
24. Josephine
I yanked my hair into a ponytail as Ezzie and I left the Dandelion Inn. A trickle of sweat slid down the center of my back, even though the sun was just peeking over the horizon. Ezzie walked urgently beside me, adjusting her bag – which contained Zindelo’s mace – on her shoulder.
I’d taken my knife with me, along with, for some reason, Markus Corsi’s book. I didn’t know why I’d brought it, just a weird feeling that I should. Since the book fit neatly in my back pocket, it didn’t bother me.
Not wanting to interrupt Ezzie’s tracking, I kept several feet between us, watching guardedly as she moved with a steady pace, pausing only to sniff the air or, more often, take a few seconds to close her eyes, twist her face in concentration, and then nod to herself.
But finally, the dread that had wedged itself tightly in the center of my stomach became too much to handle.
‘Ezzie,’ I began with some trepidation. ‘You really think Katie’s alive?’
‘If Anya wanted to kill Katie, she would’ve done so right then. It would’ve been easy. She was weaponless and alone.’ She glanced sideways at me, seemingly judging my reaction before proceeding. ‘For a chimera to carry off its prey is highly unusual – but since that prey is a gadje – there has to be a reason for it. In other words, Anya was acting under orders.’
‘From Augustine.’
‘I can think of no other,’ she replied.
‘Then he knows I’m here, too. And that I brought Katie.’
‘That was my thought as well.’
I rubbed my arms briskly to tame the goosebumps that sprang up despite the heat. ‘So, maybe taking my best friend is a warning for me to stay away from the trial.’
‘Perhaps.’ Ezzie pursed her lips. ‘Or he seeks to flush you out of hiding.’
We stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. I thought back, remembering how we’d left Matthias and Anya on Copper Mountain – their twisted forms so different from Sebastian. Failed experiments, Anya had said. And he’d abandoned them to our Marksmen.
‘But I don’t understand why Anya would do anything for him,’ I said. ‘I mean, Augustine left them to die.’
‘They were his gargoyles once,’ she replied. ‘Maybe something still remains.’
‘What do you mean?’
The sign’s red flashing hand morphed into a flashing white stick figure. We hurried to the opposite side of the street, and I let Ezzie take the lead again. I didn’t know where we were going, but it definitely seemed like we were heading away from the city’s center.
‘What do you mean,’ I repeated. ‘What remains?’
‘Some piece of their bond,’ she replied.
‘You think Anya and Matthias are still bonded to Augustine? Is that why they follow his orders?’
‘It is the only explanation I have,’ she replied. ‘The prah from the urn might enable him to have control over grotesques, but chimeras are too intelligent to be so easily manipulated. But neither do they have the capacity to bond with a Gypsy charge. Gargoyles were the first of our kind to have that ability, the result of our being created with Roma blood in our veins.’
I nodded, understanding. ‘But since Anya and Matthias were gargoyles before Augustine experimented on them …’
‘They may retain part of the bond,’ she finished.
‘How did Augustine end up with those three gargoyles to begin with?’
Ezzie shook her head. ‘That, I’m afraid, is one question I can’t answer. I slept for many years, until Zindelo and Nadya awakened me. Whatever happened between the High Council and Augustine, resulting in his marimé, and the acquisition of his gargoyles, I’m in the dark as much as you are.’
Ezzie led us away from the crowded streets and into a different part of the city. Only minutes later, we entered the quiet of an enormous park. Giant trees created massive overhangs of branch and moss over the pathways, and rolling fields of thick grass spread out on either side. Underneath the canopy of trees, the sun’s increasing rays were stifled, and I felt like I could take a deep breath again.
‘So, what is our plan?’ I asked. ‘You weren’t really clear on that when we basically told all the guys what they should be doing.’
Esmeralda smiled, a full smile this time that eased the lines on her face and made her instantly younger. ‘You handled yourself quite well with the Corsi clan, Kralitsa. You have the makings of a worthy Queen. You haven’t yet been given the chance to prove yourself.’
While the reality of my future always lingered in a section of my mind, it was way easier to pretend it didn’t exist. My aunt was still young, just a few years older than my father. Succeeding her was an event so far away that it never affected me. But what if the rumors around the Court were true. What if she did choose to announce her chosen heir this year?
Would my life change once my secret was out?
‘I’m not sure I’m ready for that chance,’ I replied. ‘Unless it means getting my best friend and my guardian back. Which brings me back to my question. Do we have a plan?’
Esmeralda’s smile dropped, and she was all concentration and business again. ‘Yes and no. I’m familiar with where grotesques tend to hide during daylight hours in the city. But wherever Anya’s taken Katie, I think we can safely assume it would also be a place suitable for Augustine.’
‘Right,’ I said. ‘Because he couldn’t stay at the Court, and no Gyp
sy establishment would house a marimé.’
Esmeralda cut through the hedges lining the path we were on, and I followed closely behind. Several yards ahead, a long brick wall blocked off the park from another wide section of land. As we got closer, I noticed the tips of stone monuments peeking over the wall. It was a massive cemetery – one of several located throughout the city.
‘What are we doing here?’ I asked, as Ezzie stopped beside a large crypt.
She placed her hand on the stone. ‘You’ve heard tales of haunted cemeteries here, I assume?’
I studied the old, crumbling slabs that lay over the ground around us, along with dozens of taller monuments that sprouted from the earth like giant pieces of an ancient marble chess set.
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘The city has ghost tours and everything.’
Ezzie huffed softly. ‘If only the gadje knew that what they’ve seen passing quietly through these places in the dead of night were not spirits at all, but rather, creatures of the shadow world.’ She looked reverently around her. ‘In fact, there are many statues in these cemeteries who once were living, breathing shadowen, turned to stone by the ones who created them, yet came to fear them.’
‘Really?’
Her eyes drifted closed, and she didn’t say anything else for a long time. Her shoulders lifted and fell, like she’d fallen asleep. Then, her eyes snapped open again, focusing on me. ‘Chimeras have been here. The scent is still fresh.’
My heart began beating faster. ‘Can you track them?’
Ezzie looked up, weaving her head in one direction, and then the other. Almost trance-like, she turned and headed in the opposite direction from where we’d entered, moving deftly between ancient-looking grave markers and tall marble obelisks.
‘I’m going to take that as a yes,’ I said, hurrying to catch up.
Esmeralda paused between two large mausoleums nestled beneath a thickly branched oak tree. The tombs were made of white granite and lined with columns. Looking at them gave me an uneasy feeling. But Ezzie didn’t seem fazed. She examined each structure intently. Her expression turned uncertain, as though she couldn’t decide between the two. I leaned against a tree, not really to rest, but more to steady myself for whatever was going to happen next. We’d been gone thirty minutes already, and Ezzie had asked for an hour.
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