He waited with the rest. All of them, quiet and patient down below. They were organized when it was required, and that was the order given to them from high. Wait, save their energy, come when the call arrived.
The wind carried over his bald head. The remains of his clothes caught the breeze, the weight of a metal badge on his chest a constant thump-thump-thump against his pale white chest. Once he had lived outside this place. Now he was indelible to it.
Every day there were new numbers added to the group. This was why he was spared. His joining the infantry here brought a line of more to follow. And when they crossed the barrier, they were taken up, brought to the town, and transformed in the image bestowed upon them by Morgauna.
In his time of waiting, barely leaving this spot as, in his new form, he no longer required as much as he did in his old, useless form. He could sit still as a statue for hours, perhaps even days, and not suffer for it. This was his blessed lot in life now, and he would not go back even if he could. His heart knew this was his destiny, the thing he had been made for since his conception.
The sound was a far-away whine at first. He craned his ear to pick it up. It was a new sound. He’d catalogued every sound around himself, even those from far away, far down the mountainside and into the civilization of humanity.
This sound carried a message, and upon hearing it, he rose to his full height. This was it. This was the moment. Now that he was receiving it, he felt the wakening, savage power of his new family, his new brothers and sisters, not only here but far off in the places once known as Seattle, San Diego, Moscow, Paris. And further to places he had never heard of before. He lifted a hand to his mouth and threw back his head to let loose the call to battle.
The day had come. The purpose was here. Soon they would be in the presence of their Queen.
From below, a thousand voices rose up in chorus, their cries carried up to the heavens and down into the very land itself.
With a leap, he jumped from the spire of the cathedral to catch on a statue marking a corner. Another leap dropped him even further, able to grab hold of a column built into the stone facade. Soon, he was on the ground.
He lifted his head again and let loose the call once more. The answer came back. They would gather now, all of them.
And once they gathered, the would set forth to carry out her will, the will of Morgauna.
Twenty-Nine
Wilmette, IL
I thought this place was supposed to be empty,” Patrick said. He seemed to be staring hard at Brodie. His face was unreadable.
The pounding on the door continued, and Liam kept a constant glance on them to make sure that they were going to hold. He cradled the stone still, but he felt almost betrayed by it. When he needed it most, it had failed him. He’d tried to defend himself against those things, and it did nothing.
“The house was empty when I checked,” Brodie said. He met Patrick’s gaze. “Why, you got something to say?”
Patrick pressed his lips into a frown. “Nothing except somebody failed to maintain operational security,” he said.
“Oh really? Operational security?”
“Your goal was to secure our perimeter, and you didn’t do it.” Patrick stood tall. He still had his gun.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Brodie shouted. He puffed up his chest and took a step toward Patrick. Patrick didn’t back down.
Liam moved between them. “They were easy to miss,” he said. “They were hiding in the closet.” He turned to stare hard at Patrick. “Give it a rest. Both of you.”
Patrick showed no expression. He hadn’t shown a lot of emotion during the whole thing. In fact, he approached the situation with a strict focus. But clearly there was something going on between him and Brodie. Liam wasn’t sure what it was, but it didn’t seem like it was a budding friendship.
Eoin was intensely focused too. “Well, however they got here, they’re here now.”
“Do you think it’s the staff?” Katina asked.
“Who else could it be?” Eoin said. He turned to Liam. “How many did you see?”
Liam shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t—”
“I counted twenty-seven,” Patrick said.
“When did you have time to count?” Brodie demanded.
Patrick turned to Brodie, the same cold expression. “I’m trained to pay attention.” Patrick’s eyes betrayed a small squint. “Would you like some lessons?”
“You son of a bitch,” Brodie said. He lurched forward with a fist reeled back and ready to swing at Patrick. Patrick only dropped back into a fighter stance. He snapped quick and blocked the incoming blow and landed a hit on Brodie’s nose before Brodie could even react.
Brodie fell backward, holding his nose. “You fucker!” he said. “You broke my fucking nose!” Brodie balled his hands into fists, but instead of going for Patrick, he held his fists out to his side. The familiar sensation of magic hit Liam, and he could see it shimmering around Brodie.
Before Brodie could act, however, a loud pop filled the space of the library accompanied by a flash. The sound stirred the monsters at the door, and the pounding picked up pace once again. Eoin stood with his hands lit by blue flame.
No one else made a sound. The only sound came from the creatures hitting the door to the library.
“The next person who makes a move is going to get this full in the face,” Eoin said. Nobody else made a move until Eoin turned to Patrick. “Are you sure of your count?”
“A hundred percent positive,” Patrick said. “I’m trained to be sure on things like this. I don’t know that that’s all of them, but that’s all I can feel outside that door.”
“Feel?” Katina asked.
“I have a talent for finding people. It helps me figure out how many are nearby too,” Patrick said.
Katina nodded as she considered. “Cool.”
“There weren’t that many staff on these premises,” Eoin said. “Even with the archivists and those with clearance to these chambers, there were only, maybe, seventeen. Twenty max.”
“Where do you think they came from?” Katina asked. She tended to Brodie’s nose as she spoke.
Eoin faced her with a grim expression. “If the fae-touched are here, then it means Cyril has been on to us all along. The extra people are very likely his doing.”
“Why?” Brodie asked. He winced as Katina did something, and he shot her a dirty look for it.
But Liam interrupted. “We can figure all that out later,” he said. “Right now, we need to get out of here.”
“That’s just it,” Eoin said. “There’s only one way in or out of this room.”
Liam stared at him. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m saying that there are no back exits out of this library,” he said.
“You didn’t think that maybe if there was a fire or something, it might be a good idea to have another way out?”
“It’s not like we built this place when regulations were in place,” Eoin said. “By the time Chicago burned to the ground in 1871, we’d owned property in this part of Illinois for sixty-five years.”
“Then we’ll have to fight our way out,” Liam said.
Eoin shook his head. “I saw four of the fae-touched take out six well-trained, well-armed guards at Aelhollow,” he said. “They’re extremely hard to kill. And they don’t kill whoever they’re after. They bite and you become like them.”
Liam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He turned and grabbed a handful of his hair as he paced. “So, you’re saying we’re trapped down here.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Eoin said. “Unless there’s something in here we can use against them.”
Liam moved back toward Eoin. “Well that’s not an option,” he said. His voice was raised.
“What other choice do we have?” Eoin managed to maintain some semblance of calm. Still, it wasn’t helping.
Liam pulled out the phone that Patrick gave him. �
�My aunt and my best friend are being held by Cyril,” Liam yelled. “I have to get to them to save them.”
“What?” Eoin said. “What are you talking about?”
Liam checked the phone. He handed the phone back to Patrick. “Unlock it,” he ordered. Patrick did so, silently, and Liam grabbed the phone back to see if it still had a connection. It did, surprisingly. But then they were in a magical library where less than an hour before, he’d been throwing around spells of fire and electricity inside a magic circle. Cell service below the ground didn’t seem like such a surprising deal. He hit the play button on the video, and he handed it to Eoin. He saw Eoin’s expression harden when Cyril entered the frame.
“Who are these people?” Eoin asked after he watched the screen.
Liam felt the grip in his gut again, a stab of fear and urgency. “I just told you,” he said. “My aunt and my best friend.”
“And how did you get this?” Eoin asked. His stare moved between both Liam and Patrick.
“I received it,” Patrick said.
“I fucking knew it,” Brodie said. He took one big step toward Patrick with blood-stained tissues sticking out of his nostrils.
Brodie made to punch Patrick, but this time Patrick simply moved out of the way. He moved fast, practiced, and he came back ready to fight. But Patrick didn’t follow through with a punch this time. Instead, he hung back. By then, Katina was on Brodie again, holding him back.
“Talk,” Liam said to Patrick. “You said you wanted to talk but that it wasn’t the time. Now, it seems we have time.”
Patrick stared at him, and Liam thought at first he wasn’t going to say anything. But then he straightened out of his fighting stance. “I was going to tell you,” he said.
Liam’s brow furrowed. “Tell me what?”
For the first time since the attack with the fae-touched, Patrick had a look of fear cross his face. His throat worked as he gulped. Liam started to get nervous, especially when Patrick turned to face him. His shoulders even slumped like he was defeated. “When we met, I was here for other reasons,” he said. He took a deep breath. “I’m the one who placed the tracker on your hand.”
“Son of a—” Brodie paced. Katina grabbed him like she was ready to hold him back again, but he jerked away from her. He wasn’t coming after Patrick that time.
“What are you saying,” Liam asked Patrick.
“I was hired by Cyril.”
“What?” Liam felt the color drain from his face.
“I thought he was going to help me,” Patrick added quickly.
“Help you with what?” Liam’s voice cracked.
“I told you what I am, who I work for.” Patrick glanced to the others like he was reluctant to say more.
“Tell them,” Liam demanded. Anger was bubbling in his chest. Anger caused by the sudden sense of betrayal that took hold deeper down in the pit of his stomach. “I mean it. No more secrets. Tell them everything. And you better tell me everything too.”
Patrick’s eyes were wide. He actually was scared now. Liam could see it on his face. “I told you I work for the CIA,” he said. The others reacted to this news, mostly with skepticism. But Patrick stared hard at Liam, stared into his eyes. “None of what I told you earlier was a lie. Every word of it was the truth.”
Liam didn’t respond to that. “But…” Liam said to force Patrick to continue.
“What I didn’t say was that I was embedded in Afghanistan with a SEAL team. Our ongoing mission was to root out Taliban forces and take out their leaders in strategic strikes.” He was including the rest of the group now. “I’ve always had this special talent for finding people. Like a psychic ability of sorts. I guess that’s pretty mundane to all of you, but to the CIA and the military, it was operational. They found me when I was in high school, and I was sent to a government school where I was trained in everything from military tactics to hand-to-hand. Even espionage.”
“Go on,” Eoin said. Clearly, he wasn’t amused by anything Patrick was saying either.
Patrick took a deep breath. “Less than a month ago, the SEAL team I was working with was kidnapped by Taliban forces. We were in for the night, holed up in a safe house in Jalalabad. Nobody except us even knew for sure where we were. That’s how it was most times. We went dark for the course of the operation with the expectation to check in at predetermined intervals. But sometime in the night, we were hit hard by gunfire and an all-sides assault. Taliban rushed in and subdued my whole team. I was hit hard and knocked out in the process,” Patrick said. “There was no way they could’ve gotten the drop on us that quick. I’ve been over it a thousand times in my head, and we had a clean watch all night long. But, in an instant, they were in, and my world went dark.”
Patrick moved around. He settled into a grim calm as he spoke, except it was clear that a part of him was reliving that night, and Liam discovered that he did believe this part of the story, even if he was still waiting on the part where Cyril became involved. That part could be the deal breaker. The expressions played over Patrick’s face. He was angry. And there was a look in Patrick’s eye that Liam recognized all too well: Guilt.
“I woke up later,” Patrick said. “It was morning, and I was all alone. I tried to find my team. I went out into the city and tried to pick up their trail using my talent. But nothing came from it. It was like they’d all gone dark.”
“Were they dead?” Katina asked.
Patrick shook his head. “I’ve never had any problem finding anything, dead or alive. If it was something that I’d seen once or especially if it was something that I’d had close contact with, I’ve always been able to locate it.”
“So, magic,” Eoin said.
Liam interrupted. “Can you find my aunt and Nina?”
Patrick frowned and turned to him. He shook his head. “I tried as soon as I saw the video.”
Liam let out a frustrated laugh and paced. “So, not very magical then.” He turned an angry glare back to Patrick.
Eoin held up a hand. “Maybe Cyril is blocking it somehow. Your mother was able to block any of us from finding you.”
“Or maybe he just doesn’t want to find them,” Liam said.
Patrick frowned, almost defeated. “I don’t know how it works,” he said. “If I did, then I could maybe have used it better.”
“A lot of good that’s doing my aunt and Nina.”
There was no answer for that. “All I know is my talent never failed me until my team was taken. With these guys—all four of them—it was like they weren’t there anymore. It’s the same with your aunt and friend. I couldn’t get a bead on them no matter how hard I tried. And I tried for seven days out there on my own until I had to get to the check point for exfil.”
“Exfil?” Katina asked.
“Exfiltration,” Patrick said.
Liam waved his hand to get them back on track. “What about Cyril?”
“I connected with a guy who directed me to him a week after I returned to Bagram Airfield,” Patrick said. “I’d been trying since the second I got back to mount a search and rescue for my team, but nobody treated it as priority one. I tried the military, military intelligence, and I even hit up people in the agency. No joy. Not a one of them seemed to be chomping at the bit to find our soldiers as I was. That’s when a guy contacted me to say he knew somebody who had connections, someone who could probably find my team and free them.”
“Cyril,” Eoin said.
Patrick nodded. “Two days later, I was in Dubai having coffee with him.” Patrick turned back to Liam. “That’s when he told me, all I had to do for him to pull strings and to get my team to safety, was to use my talent to find you, Liam. I knew nothing else about this mission. All I knew is I had to get my guys safe.”
Liam crossed his arms. He wasn’t sure where he stood on this whole story. He wasn’t even sure what he believed and what he didn’t. Everything had happened so fast with him that there wasn’t even really enough foundation to believe him. W
as there?
“You were set up,” Eoin said.
“That’s what I thought,” Patrick said. “I thought the whole thing was a setup, even the kidnapping of my team. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on him that Cyril wasn’t somebody to mess with. I’d dealt with guys like him in the agency, guys who are short on words and completely in control. I thought he was with the agency after our first meeting.” He had his attention back on Liam again, and Liam tried his best to hide all the doubt running through his mind. “But he followed through,” Patrick said. “When I put the tracker on, one of my guys was released. I have proof,” he said.
Patrick asked for his phone back from Eoin, and it took a few seconds to scroll through the screens.
“Here,” Patrick said. He turned the phone around, and Liam saw four men, naked and tied with their arms hoisted above their heads, their feet barely touching the ground. It looked like the start of the worst porno movie he’d ever seen. But then he saw one of the guys being released.
Liam still found himself unconvinced. That could have been a video taken in somebody’s basement.
“But after that first touch,” Patrick said. “Everything changed. I know you know what I’m talking about.” He reached for Liam, but Liam didn’t take his hand.
“What happened?” Katina asked.
“We both passed out,” Liam said.
“What?” Brodie was back again. He was now listening to the story. It seemed like the only one still having any doubts was Liam.
“The first time we touched,” Patrick said, “something overloaded in my head. I saw a vision—”
“The Battle at Eridu,” Liam said.
“You saw a vision of the battle?” Eoin directed his question to Patrick.
“Yeah,” he said. “And it knocked us out. We both woke up in the hospital some time later.”
“Both of you had the same vision?” Katina asked.
“Seems that way,” Liam said. He crossed his arms.
“It’s possible you picked up on something through Liam,” Eoin said to Patrick. He turned to look to Katina for confirmation, but Katina only shrugged.
The Stone (Lockstone Book 1) Page 33