by Leyton, Bisi
“Please don’t start about—”
“I get it. Since you’re his Mosroc and he’s a Sen-Son, raised to hate humans. Both your loyalties will be divided in a serious way until someone gives in.”
“You know about the Mosroc?”
“You’ve been sneaking around the clock tower for months. There’s no way someone as arrogant as Bach would do that for anyone, even a Famila. I mean the kid actually redecorated the clock room.” He pointed to his turtleneck, and then pointed at her neck “Plus, I saw the shana on your neck. Very few of us in the Family have them.”
“We’ll have plenty of time to discuss the anatomy of the Famila once we set up the piron net, before Didan gets here.”
“No,” Jason protested.
“I’m not here to argue with you. You’ve got to put up the piron net. They’re coming for you.”
“Once James gets back.” He checked his watch. “I’m not leaving my dog to be butchered. He normally finds his way home. If we set up the piron net he won’t be able to find this place.”
Seriously? “He got hurt, but he’s with Amanda.”
“How did he get hurt?”
“Some men are attacking the town. Can’t you hear it?”
“No.” Jason placed his hand behind one ear. “This building was built to withstand the Famila forcing their way in. We can’t hear in or out.”
A massive stack of junk crashed down on the other side of the room.
“Someone’s in here,” Jason whispered.
“I thought you said no one could get in here.” She ducked under a table, cramming herself between several old computer monitors.
“Yeah, but this one didn’t come here looking for me. He’s only telling himself that. Hello, Bach of the Third House,” the man remarked in the Family Dialect.
There was some more scuffling, but peeking up from the table, she saw Bach.
Closing her eyes, she considered what to do now. If he’d come to take Jason to the empirics, she wouldn’t let him. She sighed to herself when she saw Alba trailing behind him. This just made Wisteria angrier because the Famila girl always seemed to make Wisteria appear petty and foolish. How was she going to stop two full Famila?
She was still crouched under the table when Bach peered down at her from above.
“You want to get out now?” He held out his hand to her.
Ignoring his gesture, she wiggled past and crawled out unaided. “What are you doing here?”
His eyes darkened as he studied the dark bruises on her face from where Benet and Sammy had hit her. “Who did that to you?”
“You shut up.” Enric charged at her, but Bach stopped him.
“Enric, enough.” Bach’s intense stare remained fixed on Wisteria, but he turned to Jason. “We did not come here for her.”
“He is right, Enric,” Alba concurred. “We should focus on what we are here to do. Apparently, you are the geologist who made the obsidian crystal. Give us the rest of it and the tools you used to make it—”
“Sorry. You and your cousin Felip took the last of it when—”
“He is not my cousin,” Bach smoldered.
“Why would you leave something so valuable unguarded?” Enric inquired. “Did you not know what you had, Terran?”
“It was just an experiment. I didn’t even know the obsidian crystal was growing down there. I gave up that project years ago.” Jason shot Enric a harsh look. “Don’t ever call me Terran. You say human or you call me Jason.”
“Human? That word means nothing,” Enric scoffed.
In seconds, Jason had Enric dangling upside down. Laughing, Jason dropped the boy.
Jumping up, Enric barreled at Jason, but the man easily knocked him back. “Don’t embarrass yourself.”
“It is over, Enric,” Bach said before Enric could react.
“You are a mongrel?” Alba gasped.
“You willingly betrayed your people!” Enric declared.
“Since when do you consider me one of you? I lived in Famila Bridewell for most of my childhood because my father was Terran. My mother was taken from me. You don’t have a clue about betrayal.” Jason’s eyes darkened as he took out a piron nexus and activated it. “Trust me, neither of you have a clue about anything.”
“No!” Bach lunged at Jason to stop him, but the man leaped back with an incredible speed, landing on the other side of the room.
“It’s too late, they already know where we are,” Wisteria called. “The piron net won’t work.”
“Shut up, Terran,” Enric warned her again.
“No, the others haven’t been inside the building, so only these three could bring them. And the renewed human you brought is trapped somewhere in the building,” Jason informed them.
“So are you planning to trap us in here too?” Bach asked.
“My plan is to sit here and wait this out until your people get tired of going around and around, looking for this courthouse. I am guessing they’ll wait five years,” Jason said.
Five years? Wisteria hoped he was lying, but where were they supposed to go?
“You guys can’t leave until I open the doors, and none of you are strong enough to break my doors down,” Jason continued.
“You cannot keep me here!” Enric roared, marching toward the far doorway, tossing one of the tables aside as he went.
“I will talk to him.” Alba glanced at Bach and moved away.
Wisteria was glad Enric and the other girl were further away. As far as Wisteria was concerned, Alba was dangerous and the fact that Bach brought her meant Wisteria couldn’t trust him either. “So we just wait until Didan leaves?” She walked over to the stone table next to where Jason had landed.
“Wisteria, I can’t tell you what I’m doing,” Jason whispered now that they had some privacy. “You’re bonded to a Famila. Eventually, you’ll tell him.”
“I won’t,” Wisteria promised.
“You need to let her go.” Bach marched up to Jason. “What Didan has in store for you is not going to be pretty, so we should keep Wisteria out of this.”
“You involved her when you brought the empirics. But don’t worry, the only way those people are getting in here is if someone lets them in.” Jason casually drummed his fingers on a stone table. “And I control the doors.”
“D’cara!” Enric continued to pound and swear at the door.
“How did you end up here?” Wisteria asked after waiting for almost an hour as Jason tinkered with a small black tile. “I mean really, a half Famila living on this particular island?”
“My mum was a teenager when she learned she was pregnant with me. She came to this realm looking for your father. He helped her find a place to have me, but a lead empiric tracked me down and took me back to what had to be a prison home realm. I didn't see her again until I was ten. Then, she'd been married for five years and had had three children.”
“I’m sorry.” Wisteria could relate to being abandoned by one parent. After her father remarried, he’d made it clear this new family was the priority.
“She’d traded my freedom in exchange for marrying a Sen-Son.”
“That is a lie.”
Wisteria was startled to find Bach standing behind her.
The older man shrugged, completely unconcerned.
“Bach's father? Seriously?” Wisteria couldn't believe it. Right here all this time, Jason, Bach's half-brother. “Did you ever meet your mother's new family?”
“I saw my younger brothers five years ago when my mother tried to run away from the Family. She came to Red Phoenix to find your father, but instead she was trapped in a research facility in RZC and they experimented on her.”
“Were you part of Red Phoenix ?”
“RZC and Red Phoenix hid this from me for over a year. When I did find out they were experimenting on my mother and half-brother, my brother was gone and my mother was dead,” Jason informed them.
“She went to my father for help and he experimented on her.”
Feeling suddenly very heavy, Wisteria sat. “Didn’t my mother do anything?”
“Well, it wasn’t that straight forward. Your mother helped me track my brother to a den where I saw the eldest one practically beat a Thayn to death over nothing. I realized then that those were the kind of people I did not need to see again,” Jason explained.
“How did your mother die?” Wisteria asked.
Jason glanced at his half-brother. “You really should be asking Lara. She was the last person to see our mother alive.” He opened a book to read.
Bach grabbed the book from him and flung it across the room. “Not our mother, just yours.”
“Coia is our mother. I would’ve told you, but I didn’t recognize you. It wasn't until you both manifested some Mosroc symptoms that I suspected who you were, but I wasn’t sure.”
“There is no Mosroc between us,” Bach declared intensely. “It was a childish aberration.”
She fought to keep a straight face, but his words cut deep. Even though she felt he was right, he didn’t need to throw it in her face. Wisteria, enough! Their dying relationship should be the least of her worries right now.
“No Mosroc—What?” Jason scoffed. “Did you two have a fight? Is that why you feel like it’s broken?” The man glanced at Wisteria, and then at Bach. “You'll both get over it. The Mosroc can never be broken, but couples fight, argue, and bicker. At the end of the day, the Mosroc will stand.”
*****
“You do not know what you are talking about,” Bach insisted. Jason wasn’t making any sense. Bach didn’t have a half-brother, especially not a traitorous one like Jason Webb.
“What happened to your father?” Wisteria seemed taken by his fantasy stories. “Was he my...” Awkwardly, her voice trailed off. “Jason, we have spent enough time waiting. We should decide what we are going to do. I can’t wait here with you forever.”
“Wisteria, my father isn’t yours. My dad was a DJ from Chicago. Like all Famila, my mum was drawn to the music in him.” He whispered, “They had a Mosroc.”
Despite the whispering, Bach heard what Jason was implying. “You are a liar. My mother would never do that.” Outraged, he stormed up to him.
Jason tripped him and sent him falling over. “You've been used to fighting too many biters and unarmed humans. You really can’t take on a guy who grew up in a Famila prison,” Jason jeered.
“There is no way.” Instantly, Bach got up. “No way she would ever sink so low as to enter into Mosroc with a Terran. She would never dishonor her Pillar that way. Never!”
“Bach, are you even listening to yourself?” Jason remarked. “How is what Coia did any different from you and Wisteria?”
“D’cara.” The gravity of Jason’s words hit him. Was he still ashamed of her? Was that why he had been so eager to believe Alba? Turning to face her, he saw Wisteria staring at him red-eyed. A deep pain cut through his heart. “No, that is not what I meant. I swear, Wisteria.”
Racing away through the mess, she tried to get away from him. “I’ve nothing to say to you.”
“Wisteria.” Catching up with her, he grabbed her arm. “Let me explain it to you.”
“Bach, I’m tired over all your crap. All of it!”
“Please, listen to me.”
“Okay.” She was still tugging her hand out of his. “Explain what you meant.”
“Jason’s stories shocked me. Those words came from a place that even I do not understand. I swear to you—I am sorry.” He let go of her hands.
“Forget it, Bach. Like you said, there wasn’t anything between us.” She pulled away.
“Wisteria, I was angry and confused when I said it was over. I love you and I was just scared with everything that was going on.” Rubbing her neck, he needed to kiss her, but that was insane, considering where they were and what they were facing. “We had a stupid fight, I know—”
She brushed his hands away. “We’ve said everything we need to say. We should think about what we’re going to do if the others get in here. The only way they’re taking Jason is over my dead body.” She walked away from him. “Jason, I know you said there’s no way they could get in, but we should have a plan B.”
“We should use a threshold and journey out. I am guessing somewhere buried in this madness is a threshold.” Bach knew that she’d want the imposter to stay at his den.
“There’s nowhere for us to go,” Wisteria said.
“Actually, I know a place that has a threshold.” Jason continued fiddling with the tiny tile. “Once I get this working.”
“What is that?” Bach examined what the man had been working on.
“A mobile threshold? Like the piece Felip had when he came to my house, but I wasn’t sure,” Wisteria guessed.
“Felip was at your home? He was the one who did this to you.”
“Forget it. We need to focus on what’s going on. I don’t need you pretending that you’re concerned right now.”
“You know more than anyone, Wisteria, that the way I feel about you is real.”
“This isn’t the time and this isn’t the place—”
She was right, but he couldn’t stop himself from tasting her dark burnfruit lips and he grabbed her up. She was his addiction and he needed her at that moment. All the doubts about the strength of their Mosroc faded and he knew he’d be totally hers for the rest of his life.
“Bach, stop, we shouldn’t—this is just bad,” she muttered. “For all of us.”
“So push me away.”
“Bach, we’ll never be on the same side. You know this. I can’t be on your side.”
“Walk away if you have to, but if you let me, I will do everything I can do to deserve you.” He had no clue how he was going to do prove it, but he would somehow.
Her dark eyelashes fluttered as she bit her lip. “What about Alba? You’re going back to Jarthan with her.”
“There is no more Alba. I cannot go back to Jarthan, but Wisteria, we cannot stay here.”
“I know. We can leave Smythe.”
He was surprised by her response. “I will tell my father I do not intend to go through with the pledge. But this is—”
“This is what?” Enric appeared behind them. “Please explain it, Bach. I want to know. Sen-Son, I want you to tell me how exactly you intend to betray your people or commune with this animal.”
“That is enough, Enric,” Bach warned Enric, as he stepped between the Famila and Wisteria.
“You have really lost your mind.” The enraged boy stormed up to him, but his sister held him back.
“There is nothing we can do. Bach has made his choice.” Alba’s expression was cold.
“He made the wrong one,” Enric insisted.
“Why--because he’s not doing what you want him to do?” Wisteria remarked.
“Are you talking to me, Terran?” Enric bellowed.
“Enric, you open your mouth one more time and you will be picking up your teeth.” Bach had had enough of Enric and the way he was always attacking Wisteria.
“Children!” Jason called out. “I’ve got the threshold open. You can continue the drama somewhere else.”
“Old man, you are not going anywhere except to face the judgment,” Enric stated coldly.
“No, you’re wrong.” Jason placed the black tile on the glass surface of the frame and immediately the black glass grew until it covered the entire frame.
“What makes you think we will let you go?” Enric asked. “There are three of us and just one you.”
“I count only two.” Jason smirked. “And even if Bach was going to help you, that wouldn’t stop us from going. Come on, Wisteria.”
Instinctively, Bach reached for her.
She seemed as uncertain as he felt about travelling though with Jason.
“Where are you going?” Bach asked.
“I can’t tell you that, but it’s one place where the Family wouldn’t want to…” His voice trailed off. Jason’s faced turned white as the thresh
old turned the same color.
“What’s wrong?” Wisteria asked.
“Someone’s coming through, which is impossible on a mobile threshold.” Jason grimaced.
“Unless you had a beacon, you idiot.” Sneering, Alba produced a worn-out faycard.
“You have Didan’s beacon?” Enric seemed unsettled.
“You are leading them here?” Bach turned back to her.
“How else did you think I found your den at…?” She couldn’t seem to remember. “I have had one on you for a long time.”
He put his hands in his pockets, and a tattered faycard materialized in his hands. It was Alba’s, the eight of spades. Her beacon. “This was how you found my den in Forrester after I set up the piron net. Why are you doing this?”
“Like I said, you made your choice, so I am making mine and I am doing what is best for the Family.” She gave him a cold smile.
Bach felt some panic. This was going to be bad if the empirics found out that Wisteria hadn’t left.
“Can’t we just smash it?” Wisteria asked.
“It is not actual glass, idiot. It will not shatter because you pound it hard,” Alba remarked.
“Jason, open the doors so we can leave.” Bach knew there was no telling how many empirics Didan would bring through. “Wisteria, come on.” He seized her. “Jason, open the doors!”
The man hurried to the control orbs at his stone table and fiddled with them. The stone doors slowly rose.
A smiling Didan stepped through the mirrored threshold.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Wisteria.” Bach pulled her to the ground. “Hide, but once the doors are open, run and get out of here.”
“What about you?” She didn’t see how leaving him in this situation alone was going to help him.
“They cannot hurt me. I am still a Sen-Son.” Bach smiled nervously, but there was real fear in his eyes as he rose to meet Didan’s gaze. “Eminent.”
“So you are the source of the obsidian crystal,” Didan said to Jason.
“He is a half-Terran mongrel,” Alba remarked.
Three more empirics entered the room and somehow, they got the stone doors to stop moving. Enric stood in the entrance.