by Maggie Hall
I stood up. Slowly, carefully, I took off my blood-covered studded jacket, leaving the remarkably clean dress underneath. I laid it over my mom’s face—and then I turned around and walked away.
I vaguely heard voices, vaguely realized I’d been stopped, vaguely realized people were touching me. Someone was wrapping something around my shoulders. Someone else was cleaning my face with a napkin. They were talking, quietly. What does it mean if she wasn’t Circle? She must be and we just didn’t know. Did anyone see where Cole went? No.
The voices faded from my head.
My mom was gone. Mr. Emerson was gone. My own family had killed them.
No.
Stellan had been right back in Paris, in the very beginning. The Saxons were my blood, and I couldn’t change that. But they weren’t my family.
“Where’s Stellan?” I heard my own voice say.
He was right next to me. Jack was on my other side, and they both looked worried.
I could not possibly care less.
I turned to Stellan. “I’m going to stop them from doing this to anyone else. We’re going to stop them.”
Jack took my hand gently. “Avery—” I shook him off.
“She’s right,” Elodie said. “The virus works. And now they know it.”
“There’s a cure in the tomb,” Luc piped up. “We have to find it. We have to stop them.”
“No one else in the Circle can know about this,” Jack said. “Lydia and Cole are bad enough. If some of the families got wind of it, they’d be after Lydia and Cole for revenge, and who knows how it could escalate?”
I heard them, and I didn’t hear them. I still heard the screaming, muted. It could be me. I might always be screaming now.
“No.” I heard my own voice over the screaming, hollow. My eyes slowly focused, like I was moving through water. “We tell them.”
Everyone stopped, looked at me sideways.
“We tell everyone exactly what the Saxons have been doing, and what they have the potential to do now. We should have told them the second we found out.”
“It’ll be World War Three,” Jack said.
“If we don’t tell them, it could be the Black Death all over again,” Stellan countered.
“Some families will take their side, even knowing what they’ve done,” said Luc.
“And some won’t take their side. Some will want to choose another option.” Elodie’s voice cut through the din. They all looked at me. And at Stellan.
“Fine,” I said.
They all looked at one another again. A soothing hand on my back, caressing my hair. Colette.
Elodie took my arm, and then her face was close to mine, forcing me to look at her. “Listen. I know this is a very bad time. But we need you here with us, and to understand what we’re talking about. Can you do that, for just a little bit?”
I shook off the hands holding on to me, holding me up like I might fall over, trying to hold me together in one piece. “I know what I’m saying.”
“But that would mean—”
“I know what it means.” It meant the Circle wouldn’t accept what we said without some reassurances. More and more, I’d come to realize the most powerful people in the world just wanted someone to follow as much as anyone did. And I had to give it to them. Alistair’s voice back at their dinner table in London echoed through my head. As much as the mandate is about finding the tomb, it’s also about politics. And power. It’s about a united Circle, defeating all its enemies.
They’d have to be united behind me. Stellan had dropped into a folding chair, his head in his hands.
United behind us.
Someone shrieked from the hallway. Madame Dauphin dashed into the room, tears running down her cheeks.
Luc took a glance at me, then held out his arms to her. “Maman.”
Monsieur Dauphin followed, his broad shoulders filling the doorway. Behind him were guards, some of whom I remembered as Dauphin security. And behind them, the Fredericks from Cannes and some other familiar faces. More Circle. They came warily into the now-quiet room, surveying the damage.
“What was this? Lucien?” Monsieur Dauphin stalked into the room. I realized vaguely I should be afraid, remembering the last time I was near him, at Notre-Dame, while he was trying to force me into marriage.
Instead, I just glared at him. At all of them.
“Lucien,” Monsieur Dauphin repeated, and then he turned to Colette, the only other acceptable choice among our motley crew of staff and traitors. “I asked what happened here.”
Before Luc could speak, I did, from behind him. “The same people who have been killing your sons now have a biological weapon that could decimate the Circle. These are the results of a very small-scale experiment.”
The crowd whispered.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, a heart pounding against my back. Stellan’s hand slipped into mine. We stood in front of the people who had run his life for the past decade, and I could tell in a hollow way that he needed to hold on to me, so I let him.
But for once, I didn’t need him. Or Jack, on the other side of me. Or anyone. I knew suddenly, unquestionably, that I would never be afraid again. Not of the virus, not of my siblings, not of Stellan’s hand in mine and what it meant. The worst had happened. There was nothing else to be afraid of.
Monsieur Dauphin barked something in French, to Luc again. Luc looked back at us, and I nodded. He squared his shoulders. “What she’s telling you is that the Order didn’t do this,” he said. “And they haven’t been behind the assassinations, either.”
Confusion shot through the group.
“Your enemy has never been the Order,” I said over the whispers. “It’s the Saxon family.”
There was a moment of complete silence, and then the whispers turned into loud protests. I kept talking over them. “They are behind this, and the rest of the murders. And yes, I am part of their bloodline—but I’m not one of them. I’m telling you this now because I can’t let this happen.”
The chatter was turning angry. Jack stepped up protectively on one side of us, Elodie on the other. Luc and Colette stood out front.
Colette held up a hand. “There’s more. We’ve discovered who the One is.”
The group went quiet.
“And no”—Luc turned back to his father, his voice stronger—“it’s not me. It’s not any of the Circle.”
He and Colette moved aside, and he gestured behind him. “It’s a lost thirteenth bloodline. Alexander the Great’s own bloodline.”
Stellan and I were suddenly exposed, our friends flanking us. Stellan’s hand squeezed mine tight enough to hurt, and it felt good.
I watched the Dauphins and everyone around them as they finally saw where our fingers intertwined, and shock dawned on their faces.
“It’s true,” Luc said.
“And you’d better get used to it,” Colette piped up, “because they’ve already fulfilled the mandate. And we’re all behind them.”
Madame Dauphin’s eyes narrowed, disbelieving.
Elodie stepped forward, meeting her gaze with no hesitation. “I no longer belong to you.”
Monsieur Dauphin’s big hands clenched at his sides. “And the Saxon Keeper?”
We all looked at Jack. “I’m not a Saxon Keeper anymore.” He nodded at me and Stellan, then raised his head high. “I’m theirs.”
Stellan’s hand clenched in mine. The closest thing he had to a brother, and the guy who, until a few days ago, I thought I could be falling in love with, had just pledged himself, his life, to the two of us. Madame Dauphin’s hand fluttered to her chest. The rest of them whispered.
I blinked, hollow, and stared down Monsieur Dauphin until he looked away first. The rest of the Circle members, crowded behind him, murmured excitedly.
“All of you stop.”
It came out of my mouth unbidden. The chatter stopped like a light switch had been flipped. “This isn’t a game. It’s not fun gossip.” The cold, hard voice didn’t sound like me. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror at the end of the runway. I still looked tiny next to Stellan, but together, the two of us and our friends surrounding us formed a wall that, from this angle, looked impenetrable. I stood in the very center, blood still decorating my face like war paint, my dress dark, heavy, like glittering armor.
The whole group was holding its breath, waiting for me to finish.
“We’re going to stop them.” I took one more look at my mother, at the small body on the floor, covered by an ugly couture jacket.
I’d always had a shell I could put on when I needed it. It had just never been so unbreakable. I let it form the rest of the way around me, straightening my spine, strengthening my voice, crushing any errant emotion that might still be pulsing through me until I felt blissfully, completely empty. Everything looked the same, and everything had changed.
I didn’t have to consider what to say next. It was like I’d always known. “We’ve fulfilled the mandate. We’ve found what you’ve been looking for from the tomb.” Now they just stared. “You’ll do exactly what we say to stop the Saxons from hurting anyone else.” The twins’ faces flashed through my head. “And then I’m going to kill them.”
And I would. And the Circle would help me, because I was their new leader. Stellan and I were. They were ours, as surely as if I’d branded them with the thirteen loops of my necklace. Elodie had been right earlier—some of the families would side with the Saxons. It could be World War III, and I’d be at the front lines. But there was nothing else to do.
Luc gave me a tiny nod over his shoulder and turned back to his parents, to the Circle. “You heard her. But in case that wasn’t entirely clear, may I present to you Avery West and Stellan Korolev. The One, and the girl with the purple eyes, united. The new thirteenth family of the Circle of Twelve.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The journey to a finished book can seem as long (and sometimes treacherous) (but fun nevertheless!) as Avery’s globe-trotting adventures, and there are a lot of people who helped make this voyage a good one.
The first and biggest thanks go to my editorial team: editor Arianne Lewin and assistant editor Katherine Perkins, the only people in the world who have read all eight billion iterations of this book (sorry, guys!). Ari, you ripped the book to pieces more times than I can count and helped me put it back together into what it was always meant to be. Katherine, you always have just the right genius insight when I’ve hit a wall I don’t think I can get through. Without you two, Avery (and I!) never would have made it this far, and I appreciate you more than I could possibly say.
To the rest of the Penguin team: fab publicity and marketing folks Lauren Donovan, Anna Jarzab, and the rest of that hardworking crew; Theresa Evangelista for a second gorgeous cover; and everyone else who helped get the book out in the world—I am so lucky to be part of the Penguin family.
To my agent, Claudia Ballard, for your continued championing of this series. And to the rest of WME, including the talented film/TV and foreign rights departments, and especially Anna DeRoy, Erin Conroy, and Laura Bonner.
As a new author, you hear a lot about how stressful the year you debut and write book two in a series can be. Thank you to all the people who made it a lot more fun, especially:
To Dahlia Adler Fisch, who continues to be the best and smartest sounding board, advice-giver, friend, and human. I’m not sure what I’d do without you. To Sofia Embid—this is what happens when you see someone and think, I want to be friends with her. And then, a year of wine and books and ridiculous adventures later, you are, and it’s the best. To all the amazingly talented 2015 debuts. To my favorite sister wife, Kim Liggett. To Penguin Teen on Tour! (Rachel Hawkins, Jessica Khoury, Morgan Rhodes, and Seth Fishman) for more fun than I thought it was possible to have on a book tour. To my brothers, family, and friends (Brenda Drake and the ABQ writer crew! My wonderful YA book club! Lovely online friends!), who manage to maintain enthusiasm for this crazy book-writing thing I’m doing. To my in-laws, Chuck and Sara—the crew aren’t on a sailboat in this book, but a yacht is close enough, right? And to my parents, Jill and Dave, who think I can do anything, even when I’m not so sure. I’m pretty sure you’d be proud even if I just wrote down the alphabet a few thousand times, but it means a lot anyway.
A huge thank-you to everyone who read my book this year, and especially all the readers who obsess about Avery and Jack and Stellan as much as I do. You know who you are—I’ve met you and talked to you via e-mail and Twitter and Instagram and seen your edits on Tumblr, and I am so impressed by your creativity and awed by your love of this series. I don’t care what other authors say—my readers are the best.
Most of all, always, to Andrew. You put up with me, make me feel better, make me a better person. My husband is the best husband there is.
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