I inched closer to Rhys’s side. “Rhys, who is he?”
“An old friend,” Vasily answered at the same time Rhys replied, “An agent.”
Agent? I blamed the depiction of Sect agents on prime-time television for my utter disbelief: strong and strapping men and women, young but not too young, cool in black suits and shades, or in their red combat-ready flak jackets. Howard had fit the bill better than either Vasily or Rhys, the latter too geeky and the former too heroin chic in his jeans and coat to set off any authority bells. At the end of the day, it just showed how little I knew about the Sect, an organization that shared almost nothing with the world whose safety they were supposed to ensure.
I looked between the two of them, at Rhys’s anger quietly simmering as Vasily held his hands coyly behind his back.
“What are you doing here, Vasily?” It was more of a demand than a question.
“I was in the neighborhood, doing a few things here and there.”
“For Blackwell? You still his personal errand boy?”
The insult didn’t seem to register or, at the very least, Vasily didn’t seem to care. He considered his nails with a particularly pleasant expression. “Since I heard you were coming here, I thought I’d see how you were doing with the mission.”
“We’re doing fine,” Rhys answered shortly.
“Then where’s Chae Rin?”
Rhys frowned. I knew he couldn’t very well answer, Bathroom, without looking like a moron.
“You were sent the update too, weren’t you, Aidan?” Vasily hid his hand inside his pocket and moments later drew out a phone. “The update on the pending operation?”
Rhys nodded stiffly. I sucked in a breath and waited.
“I’m assuming that’s why you rushed out to find this girl.” He jerked his head toward me. “Things are moving along, but the situation is more time sensitive than ever before. To meet the Sect’s schedule, you’ll need to recruit Chae Rin within the next hour.”
One hour to find and placate a pissed-off Effigy. Should be easy.
“There’s something else,” said Rhys. “There’s another reason why you’re here, isn’t there?”
“Don’t be so paranoid, Aidan. I just follow my orders like everyone else.” Closing his eyes, Vasily lifted his head and breathed in the fresh air. “And who knows? Maybe I’ll catch a show while I’m in the area. What do you think?”
Rhys’s eyes narrowed, but it was obvious that Vasily was already done with him.
“It was nice meeting you, Maia Finley.”
I shivered at the sound of my name on his tongue.
“Oh,” he added, stroking the faded stubble on his chin. “One more thing—about the new circus act that debuted yesterday . . .”
Rhys must have reported it earlier, which meant by now the information was already circulating throughout the organization. Would Chae Rin get in trouble? I bit my lip.
“I heard a rumor from a particularly interested party. You could call it a lead.” He plucked a balloon out of a passing clown’s hand, twisting the string around his finger. “When you talk to the manager, remember to check for a white jewel.”
“White jewel?” said Rhys.
“I’m almost certain he’ll have it on his person.”
But Rhys didn’t look convinced. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Truthfully, I have other things to attend to. Otherwise, I’d check it out myself. Now that I’ve told you this, I’m counting on you to handle things quickly and professionally, as always.”
His smirk held a deeper meaning. A secret. Rhys must have known what it was, because his body stiffened at the sight of it, but it was a secret neither boy would tell.
“Of course,” Vasily continued, “since time is of the essence, if you’re not able to get things done, then I have orders to take matters into my own hands. And nobody wants that.”
It looked to be the case, because Rhys’s expression became colder and harder than ever before. I shuddered.
Vasily turned. “Quickly now.”
“Wait,” said Rhys, but Vasily had already disappeared into the crowd.
“SECT.” RHYS FLASHED HIS BADGE. “We’re here to talk to the manager. Tell Chae Rin to meet us at his office.”
The circus dorms were tucked behind the main venue. Rhys and I made our way through the first floor until we reached the manager’s office.
Rhys knocked on the door. “Henry Guillaume? We’re from the Sect. We need to discuss something with you urgently.”
I leaned against the wall. “You really think we should bother with the manager?”
“Vasily’s a lot of things, but he’s still an agent. If he thinks we should check him out, I’m willing to do it.” He knocked again. “Besides, if this is the guy behind Chae Rin’s me-and-my-pet-monster act, then I’d like to have a little chat with him anyway.”
His expression darkened.
Just when he lifted his arm to knock again, the door swung open.
I gaped. “It’s you.”
The ringmaster. Apparently, he doubled as the manager, but today he looked much less extravagant than his theatrical persona, what with the beach shorts stretching down to his knees. I couldn’t stop staring at his hairy legs.
“What do you want?” He peered down at me from behind a pair of dark shades.
“We . . . uh . . . need to talk . . . to you. . . .” I had to force myself to focus on his face, which did not go unnoticed by a very amused Rhys.
“Book an appointment.”
Rhys’s hand found the door before it could slam shut. “We could, but then we’d have to come back with a whole lot of people.” He smiled. “And handcuffs.”
The ringmaster stepped aside, glaring at us as we entered, but he quickly gathered himself, straightening his purple dress shirt and popping the collar of his blazer with professional gusto. Neither act did anything to counter the ridiculousness of his shorts.
“You’re Henry Guillaume? General manager?” Rhys walked up to the front desk, tilting the name plaque on his desk.
“Yes,” he said, his red hair tied not-so-neatly behind his head. “And I can guess why you’re here. I knew the Sect would show up sooner or later. But this circus is privately owned. You don’t have the right to infringe upon any private matters here.”
“Even when you throw in a giant monster or two for your final act?” Rhys tossed up the plaque, catching its other end. “You couldn’t afford an elephant?”
Guillaume grabbed it out of his hands. “It’s our business. Not yours.”
“Somehow you found some way to control phantoms, the very thing that’s been terrorizing all of mankind for more than a century, and you didn’t think it was something you should mention to the authorities?”
“What of it, boy?”
Lightning fast, Rhys grabbed the collar of his shirt, drawing him close. “Do you have any idea how many people have died because of phantoms in the past week alone? Let me give you an estimate.”
Guillaume stuttered something, but I wasn’t listening. I’d just noticed the ring on his finger, tiny and inconspicuous but for the white stone framed at the center of it. It looked so familiar. . . .
Oh my god.
“Where did you get that?” I demanded, my heart rate rising by the second. “That ring? Where did you get it?”
Black strokes buried deep in the pool of blinding white. It was the same ring as Saul’s. The same ring he’d shown me on the balcony before commanding an army of phantoms to slaughter the hotel.
I told Rhys and instantly regretted it. Without missing a beat, he flipped Guillaume onto the table, pinning the flailing man down onto the wood.
“Rhys!”
“You heard her: Where did you get it?”
“This, this is illegal!” The ringmaster coughed and sputtered like a struggling jalopy.
“I said where did you get the ring?”
“What the hell do you two bozos think you’re doing?”
Chae Rin stood at the door in a pair of jogging-ready leggings, wild-eyed and furious.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” I said pointlessly. It was exactly what it looked like.
“Kim!” Guillaume tried and failed to pry Rhys’s fingers off his shirt. “Kim! Get these mad people away from me!”
Chae Rin shook her head. “I cannot freaking believe this!”
Once Chae Rin began striding toward us, Rhys let the ringmaster go. “Chae Rin—”
“Don’t ‘Chae Rin’ me. Come on, you idiots!” Grabbing the two of us by the wrists, she single-handedly dragged us both out of the office.
“We need to get that ring,” I said once Chae Rin let us go, Guillaume’s promises to press charges muffled behind the shut door. “He’s using that ring to control the phantom!”
“Oh, yeah? And how the hell do you know that?” she demanded.
I explained everything as quickly as I could, but Chae Rin still wasn’t convinced. “Rhys, you should know better than to harass a private citizen over complete guesswork,” she said. “Especially guesswork dreamed up by an overly excited rookie.”
“But—”
“Stop.” She looked exhausted with the two of us, exhausted by the whole ordeal. “Can you guys just . . . please. Don’t do this. Not today.” Sticking her earbuds in, Chae Rin zipped up her white wind jacket. “Today’s really important for me and I don’t need the distraction. Let’s talk tomorrow, okay? Come with an army of Sect bureaucrats if you need to. Just do it tomorrow.”
Chae Rin took off for her run at a furious pace, but I wasn’t letting her go that easily. By the time Rhys called after me, I was already chasing her. She was finally in my sights. I wasn’t about to screw up again.
Chae Rin was athletic and fast, and the music she blasted was probably too loud for my desperate cries to cut through, but I forced my legs to keep working nevertheless.
The dorms overlooked a tiny but majestic lake, sparkling beneath the heat of the sun. When Chae Rin looked back and saw I wasn’t going away, she sprinted even harder.
“Wait!” I was panting. I did pretty well at track in school, but Chae Rin was on another level. “You friggin’ jerk!” I’d screamed it at the top of my lungs. “I said wait!”
Chae Rin spun around. I nearly tripped over my own feet as I dug my heels into the soft earth to stop my own momentum.
“What did you call me?” Chae Rin ripped the buds out of her ears.
Propping myself up against my knees, I let out a nervous chuckle, which was definitely hard to manage with my chest heaving. “Oh, so you could hear me?”
“So I’m a jerk, huh?”
Staring down Chae Rin was the stuff of nightmares, but I finally found my courage and stood my ground. “It’s true, isn’t it? I told you everything that’s going on and what, you just don’t care?”
“Didn’t I say we can talk later?”
“Now!” I straightened up, stomach hot as the anger bubbled inside me. “We need to talk now. We need that ring now. And you need to come with us now. There is no later.”
“You presumptuous little shit. You think you can order me around?”
“Why not?” My tongue was loosening at an alarming rate, about as fast as my anger rose. “I mean, who are you? An Effigy?” I scoffed. “More like a poor excuse for one. You know, every time I hear about you in the news it’s about one of your failures.”
Chae Rin stayed silent.
“You have the chance to make up for all of that. There is a terrorist on the loose, and we need you. Why is this so difficult? If Natalya were here, she’d—”
“She’d what? Save the day?”
The cold breeze wafting over the lake carried Chae Rin’s frigid laughter. “You have no idea, do you? What she was really like. No, you’re just another wide-eyed fangirl.”
Chae Rin started toward me. Her lips remained frozen in a grin, but it was her eyes that told me everything. Even when she was burying me under a pit of earth yesterday, her eyes weren’t even close to being this cold.
“Let me guess. You think Effigies are just the bestest, don’t you? And you’ve got posters of Natalya pinned to your wall next to your limited-edition action figures?”
“No.” My one poster was in my closet somewhere.
“So do you want to hear about the real Natalya? The raging alcoholic with a psychotic need to throw herself into danger at every turn? ‘The Sect’ this and ‘the Sect’ that. Duty, honor. I always figured she’d get herself killed, but who knew she’d end up killing herself instead?”
“Stop.” My nails dug into my palms. “Stop it. Don’t talk about her like that!”
“Why not?” Chae Rin spread her arms wide. “Welcome to reality, newbie. Welcome to the life. Effigies? We die. We get killed or we kill ourselves. Natalya? She killed herself.”
Water blurred my vision. “She didn’t.”
“Everyone’s saying she did. That sound super cool to you, fangirl?”
“Stop!”
“Me, I’m taking the third option: living out the rest of my pathetic life in shame. But it’s not so bad.” Chae Rin gestured around herself. “Living my dream. It was either this or gymnast . . . that is, before fate came a-knocking. And you know what? I may not be saving lives anymore like your precious Princess Natalya, but I’m making people happy. I’m happy. Don’t I have the right to choose that for myself?”
Chae Rin didn’t stop until we were face-to-face, staring each other down. “If you’re so pathetic and broken that you need magic powers to validate your meaningless life, then feel free to follow in your hero’s footsteps, right into a casket. But leave me out of it.”
I stared at the ground, rage blinding me. I’d heard the stories. I knew how Chae Rin was, but she wasn’t supposed to be this. She was an Effigy. Effigies were supposed to be . . .
I closed my eyes. June grinned happily at me in the darkness.
“Strong. You’re supposed to be strong. A hero.” I trembled. “Natalya was. But you . . . You’re nothing compared to her!” And now it was my turn to wear a cruel grin. “You’re scared, aren’t you? That’s what this is about. All this talk about the Sect humiliating you or whatever, it’s all crap.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. You messed up at your job and you can’t even take accountability for it. You’re mad that the Sect treats you like an issue? Is it the Sect’s fault you’re more famous for your crap attitude and messy tantrums than you are your battle stats? Hell, even your own parents are ashamed of you! Wonder why.”
Chae Rin went deathly still. I knew it was an awful, low blow. I knew I’d crossed the line. I was insulting her blindly now. But I just couldn’t stop myself, even when everything inside me was screaming at me to.
“So you don’t want to help? Fine, good. Stay gone. Who needs you? You couldn’t even make it through your first mission! Ended up on a stretcher—”
I could feel my stomach caving in. Chae Rin’s punch sent my body smashing into the ground.
“Don’t worry,” Chae Rin said in a low, terrifying tone as she lifted me back up by the collar. “Effigies heal fast.”
And she tossed me into the lake. I thrashed about in the gentle waves, prying my eyelids open just in time to see Chae Rin lifting me out of the water.
“How fucking dare you?” Chae Rin shook me. “How dare you say that to me?”
I wanted to believe that the wetness in Chae Rin’s eyes was simply part of the lake water dripping down her face. I knew it wasn’t.
“You have no idea. You don’t know me at all.” Dragging me behind her by the collar, she pinned me down onto the shore. “You want to know what it’s like? To have your body broken? To see someone’s guts spewed out over the sidewalk? To see hell?” Chae Rin shook. “And then to still be the screwup? You think I don’t know what my family thinks of me?”
The tears spilled from her eyes, dripping onto my face. I didn’t even know when my own had begun falling.
“Who are you?” Chae Rin’s voice broke. “Who are you to say that to me?”
“I’m no one.” My lips trembled as I said it, my body bruised and tender. “Not like you. Or Natalya or Belle.”
All those people. On the bridge. At the La Charte hotel. The woman in the elevator.
My own family.
“I can’t save anyone.” I looked up at the other Effigy, tears still streaming down my cheeks. “But you have all this strength, all this power. You can save them. I know you can. Why won’t you?”
Wiping the tears from her face, Chae Rin let me go and trudged past me, her labored steps drawing a trail in the sand. She took a moment to flip the hair from her face, breathing deeply. Then, finally, she bowed her head.
“My family’s coming today.” She was so quiet. I could barely hear her. “To the first afternoon show. My sister, my dad. My . . .” She choked up. “My mom. You know, this whole Effigy thing? It’s hardest on the families. My mom . . . once she found out I was chosen, she . . .”
She stopped. Something must have happened, something not even the public knew. I know Chae Rin’s parents owned a restaurant in Vancouver, but the internet never told me anything else.
“But she’s okay now.” Chae Rin turned, her eyes bright and once again filled with youthful innocence. “They’re coming here to see me. I’ve paid my dues. And now my family doesn’t have to worry about me. I’m done.” She bit her lip. “I’m . . . I’m sorry.”
The surprising thing was that she truly looked it.
• • •
Effigies really did heal fast. Chae Rin had done some damage, but nothing too serious. After few hours of rest in the Sect’s car, I bounced back with a few—or more—bruises to remind me of what Chae Rin could do when she was angry. Not like I didn’t deserve them.
“We’re running out of options,” Rhys said. Rather than shuttle back to the town, we stayed in the massive circus parking lot. It was already filled up with the audience for the first show of the day. “I tried to get back into the manager’s office, but he’d already called security. This is ridiculous.”
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