I rushed toward the indicated entrance and stopped short again as that bird fell from the sky. It lay still on the ground. With unseeing eyes, the bird in front of me no longer looked at anything. What had just happened?
The circling winged ones above this place were silent. Had he done something wrong? I knew that Teagan’s guys had followed the birds for a bit, but what that one just did went beyond anything I’d ever seen any of them do except Brother Reed. Maybe it wasn’t allowed.
Maybe he’d done it anyway.
And paid the price.
What happened to those ravens when they died? If they were people, Alexander, and maybe Gordon at one point, what happened to them? How and when did they stop being birds and become people? Did dying prevent that from happening?
These were not questions I could answer. I needed to get moving. The door to the front flew open, and a woman all in black except for an intricate red design that swirled around the garment walked out, flanked by five men. They didn’t look drugged. Their movements were alert, pronounced, purposeful.
“Two weeks. That’s how long it should take you to get the baby.”
I took that opportunity to run through the side door. If that raven had sacrificed his life to tell me to go through that door, I wasn’t going to screw it up. I rushed through it. The main house was poorly lit, and the staircase I rushed down creaked beneath my feet. I hoped it didn’t give out. When I got to the bottom, there was no bird to tell me which way to go.
I kept my breathing even. I couldn’t tear through this, I had to think my way to Mika. I closed my eyes and listened. In one direction, there were large bangs. Water was hitting the pipes incorrectly, somehow the flow was wrong. That didn’t surprise me in the least. This whole place was going to fall down around us—hopefully not today.
She wanted Mika to do something for her. I couldn’t believe that either she or Sister Katrina herself could manage anything with that kind of racket constantly in their head. I’d go the other way first.
When I’d been five years old, it had become clear to me that I would only be fed if I figured out how to get the food myself. I hadn’t known that Peter’s was the kind of place where if I had just asked any adult wearing shoes for some food, they’d have given it to me. That wasn’t how my life had gone up until that point. So, I’d gotten really good at stealing things off carts that came to our part of the island. I took anything that could be eaten that I could get away without being noticed.
Silence had been my best friend. It was again.
A warmth filled me. Mika was near. I trusted the sensation. I’d felt it at the fire. What had the ravens said to Gordon? Pay attention to the fire. I had and what I’d gotten from that was I could feel Mika when she was near, like she was in my soul. She made cold places warm, and she was here.
I rounded the corner in time to see a Guard outside her room. He was a big man, tall, broad shouldered with a large tattoo on his neck. Red, and orange, it was a picture of fire permanently placed on his body.
The birds really hadn’t been kidding. Fire was everywhere.
“You’re going to want to get away from her door.”
I had a knife hidden in my boot. Bringing the full on sword that I’d gotten from Bryant didn’t make sense since I’d been in disguise. Now, I wished I had it on me. No matter. Not even being stabbed by the man in front of me would keep me from Mika.
Not that I intended to let that happen. By contrast, I planned to be the person doing the stabbing if the entity between me and what was mine didn’t get out of my way.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m under orders to watch her. I put up with months having to listen to Titus and his crew to get her here. I’m not leaving.”
I shrugged. “Then so be it.”
I charged him, my arm out to grab what I wanted. He was trained but not as well as I had been. He left his sword vulnerable, and I took it straight off his back. That was the thing about me—once a thief, always a thief. I’d always been able to do whatever I needed to do to survive. Mika was survival. She was more important than food, shelter, or air. She was pivotal to my existence.
With his sword in my hand, I backed him up to the wall. “Sure you don’t want to change your mind?”
Bryant had told us that given the chance to be merciful we should. We were all human. Sometimes people made mistakes. If they weren’t too far gone to demons, they were the people we fought for. They were why our Sisters made the sacrifices they did.
“You work for that evil bitch, Anne? Don’t you? You’re here for the other freak in that room. I should have known. We will stop you all. Katrina will restore the true order of things.”
Mercy only extended so far. I could see it in his eyes—he hated us. He was truly committed to Sister Katrina, and given the chance, he would get in my way over and over until he killed me and kept Mika here. That’s what he wanted.
My will was stronger.
I’d never killed anyone before. The boy from the wrong side of Peter’s had never gone as far as committing murder. But as I used my sword to slit his throat, I wasn’t even sorry. Bryant wasn’t wrong. People deserved mercy.
Only, not this one.
Or any others that I thought might hinder our getting out of here. If I ended up dead on like the bird outside for breaking some rule, then it would be worth it, knowing I’d saved Mika from this place—from this hell.
15
Lennon
* * *
Waiting had never been my strongest attribute. I supposed it required patience, of which I had very little. I paced the length of the two trees behind which we were spending twenty-four hours waiting. I loved Ren like a brother, but I wanted to take it out of his hide that he’d thought about that plan so fast and gotten Neil’s approval to go in alone without even discussing it with the rest of us.
I’d have convinced him to make it a two-person attack. Now, I had to worry about him and worry about Mika all at the same time. And wait. Which I hated. A lot.
“You’re going to make yourself dizzy.” Gordon crouched over a rock. He’d been staring at the ground for ten minutes.
“Memorized all the grains of dirt there, yet?”
My snarky remark didn’t get answered because we all heard the shout in the distance at the same time. Was that Ren? It had only been a few hours.
We rushed forward as a team, each one of us taking our spots. Mine was always somewhere to the left of Neil. We’d been this way forever. Bryant had called it our natural instincts, and maybe they were, but I suspected they also came from years of having to stand, the five of us, against the people who wanted to take Ren back.
His parents had died, but the nefarious characters on the other side of the island thought they had rights to him. They’d been sorely mistaken.
The life we’d led here on earth mattered as much as whatever training we’d had before. If anything, we were better off for having spent all that time together.
Ren had Mika in his arms as he ran toward us. No one seemed to be chasing him, but he plowed in our direction like every demon on the planet nipped at his heels. Mika rocked in Ren’s arms, and I winced at the sight.
She’d been cursed again. I ground my teeth together. My poor love—we’d get her better, fast.
Gordon shook his head. “We’re not going straight to Peter’s. We’re going to have to go back to Anne’s to get Teagan to help her.”
“Whatever it takes.” I met Ren halfway, taking Mika into my arms to give Ren a break. It wasn’t easy to run carrying someone, even if they were as light as Mika.
She smelled the same. Mika always had the scent of cherries on her. She’d lost weight, and dark circles stood out, making her eyes look slightly sunken in. I was surrounded by the others, each of us equally invested in getting to see her face again with our own eyes.
“Why are you covered in blood?”
That was when I noticed it. There was blood all over Ren. “What happened?”
“I killed someone. I can’t get into it here. Let’s get her out of this place. I only got away because they’re lazy. The whole thing inside there is off. I don’t want to be in the vicinity when it turns on.”
He was right. We got moving.
I watched Mika rocking back and forth. We’d wanted our girl back so much, and we had her. But she was still lost to us.
“Any idea what to do?” I really hoped Neil had some information he hadn’t been sharing. I ran my hands through my hair. She rocked, back and forth, back and forth. If something was in her way, she banged into it with the rocking, her eyes distant, unseeing. I wanted her to look up. I needed her to see me.
Neil shook his head. “We have to hold strong on this. The journey is only half done. This is the hardest part.” He sucked in a breath. “I’m not making light of this, guys. Not at all. I want her back so much, and yet we have to treat her like she’s… like she’s the most precious cargo on this train, and we have to keep her safe. That’s what we have to do.”
He was right. His little speech didn’t particularly bolster me—speeches rarely did—yet I appreciated Neil making the effort.
Wayne shook his head. “I want to shout to the heavens. Hasn’t she suffered enough?”
“When has shouting ever gotten any of us anywhere?” Gordon snapped. He always did when he was stressed. “This is what it is. We have her physically safe. We’ll get her returned to us. I promise we will.”
Gordon wasn’t any better equipped to keep that promise than I was, and even knowing that, I believed him. Together, we would do this.
Ren moved toward the door. “I need a walk.”
None of us tried to stop him. Whatever it took to stay strong, that was what we’d do.
I sat with Mika on my lap. She was dressed in regular clothing—brown pants and a red shirt—that we’d bought off a woman in the train station. The stranger had looked at us like we had two heads when we’d asked her to open her suitcase and let us take her clothes in exchange for gold. Still, it was a statement of just how far this apocalypse had progressed that she’d gladly done it. We’d taken almost the entire contents of her bag.
Mika had fought us to keep on her Sisterhood garb, and we hadn’t wanted that. So after we boarded the train and she took herself to the bathroom to bathe, Wayne had thrown away the awful Sisterhood garb. He replaced it with regular clothing. She seemed to be doing activities like eating and sleeping with no thought and presence. It was as though when Katrina had cursed her, she hadn’t wanted to have to actually care for her. So she’d set it up so that the person still took care of their own basic needs.
She’d come out dressed better to fit in. Now if we could figure out how to hide her white eyes, we’d be all set. In the meantime, she rocked and I rubbed her back. Did she know we were with her? Would that make things better or worse? You couldn’t explain or apologize to a person who wasn’t mentally present.
Ren and Wayne were patrolling the train for any potential threats while Gordon and Neil had gone to bring back food. It was just Mika and myself. I hummed lightly, a tune my mother had used to calm me when I was sick or scared. I didn’t know if it had words, and even if it did, no one wanted to hear me sing, not even me.
A wave of nausea rolled through me, and I sat up a little bit. What was that?
In front of me, the vision of a woman appeared. She was tall, skinny, and had straight black hair. She shimmered, like she wasn’t any more solid than the air around us.
“Hello, Lennon.”
I blinked. Was this actually happening? Who was this woman? Nausea rolled through me again. Yeah… whoever she was, I didn’t want to talk to her. I wanted her to leave right now.
“Whatever you are, get out of here. You’re not wanted.”
She put her hand on her hip, which told me that somewhere, she was solid enough to do that movement. I pulled Mika closer to me then went a step further, taking her off my lap, setting her on the chair, and putting my body between Mika and the specter.
Ghosts were the things of fairytales, but then again, we lived in a world of demons. Anything was possible. I’d have to see if any of Gordon’s books talked about this.
“I can’t hurt her. Not from here. My name is Katrina, and despite what you might have heard, I am not your enemy.”
I’d been told plenty, and the fact she kidnapped my love spoke enough on the subject. She’d also had every Sister I knew tormented. Was that what was happening to Mika now?
“Get away from here. I have nothing to say to you.”
She formed a thin line with her mouth. “I will get her back. You can bring her to me and live, or die in the process.”
“I think who lives and who dies goes beyond your realm of power. Be gone with you. I have no time for your filth.”
She shimmered into nothingness. I didn’t know much, but I was certain this wasn’t the last time I’d see Sister Katrina.
It took months to get Mika back to her Sisterhood. We arrived in full darkness, the moon high in the sky. The gate opened as we approached, and Sister Daniella’s husband, Max, nodded at us. “Daniella saw you guys arriving in a vision. Bring Mika to Teagan. They’re all waiting.”
They were?
Neil vocalized what I was thinking. “They don’t think this will be easy. This isn’t just going to be Teagan taking Mika out of the curse.”
A cold settled in the base of my spine. Whatever it took, we were bringing Mika back from wherever she had been stuck for a little over a year. It was sweet torture to be with her right now. She was with us, and yet she was still gone.
Gordon took her from me, and we all walked into the room. They’d made great progress on the house while we’d been gone. It looked like a home again. Bryant had taught us swordsmanship, and we’d instructed them on building.
I might have done certain things differently—like I probably wouldn’t have buttresses anywhere near the place—but it was Anne’s home, and whatever she liked was her prerogative.
In the guesthouse that had been our home, the Sisters we knew waited for us. We’d been gone a long time, and everyone looked tired. Dark circles, bruises, and scars marred their visible skin. Behind Daniella, her three daughters who I almost never saw—Clara, Devyn, and Jayne—had joined the group.
Throughout the house, Sisters rocked. Hope fled my thoughts. If Teagan hadn’t figured out how to cure these others, how would she get Mika help? The Prophet—as Teagan was called—held a baby girl in her arms, rocking her slightly.
“You rescued her. Well done.” Anne’s smile was bright, if not tired.
“Thanks,” Neil answered for us. “We’d have it no other way. I’m afraid we may have Sister Katrina on our heels. She went after Lennon on the train. Tried to get him to betray us all.”
Teagan nodded. “She does that. I’d hoped Mika wouldn’t be back in that state, if you brought her back here at all. Every time I try to take any of them out of it, it’s like Katrina pulls me toward her with claws. We’ve been trying to figure out what to do. We shouldn’t be surprised that you showed up tonight. We finally had an answer.”
“Which was what?” I asked, not waiting for anyone else to do it. Most of the time, I was happy to stand back and watch what happened around me. But this was Mika. I wanted them to hurry up with their answers.
Daniella cleared her throat. “My daughters. It seems their powers have become active. We hoped to have more years until they were at risk like this. Or that they wouldn’t have to do it at all. We’ve been trying to figure out which Sister to try their abilities on. Frankly, I’ve been dreading this day since they were born. I… I don’t mind risking myself over and over, but my children…” Her hands shook, and she put them in her pockets. My heart turned over for her. Daniella had owned her love for her Guards and defied Katrina twenty years before anyone else. She was strong, and to see her anxious seemed somehow wrong.
She took down demons, but didn’t want her daughters to do
so.
“With Mika being The Oracle, and Daniella having the vision of her returning today, we thought it a sign that we should use their talents to help her first.”
I wanted my girl back—to start to make things right—more than anything, but I wasn’t okay with harming children to do so. Moreover, I didn’t think Mika—who had cared for Alexander with such gentleness—would want this either.
“Isn’t that risky?” Gordon spoke the words I thought. “If they go after Teagan, couldn’t they simply turn around and do the same to them?”
Daniella sighed and put her hand on Clara’s back. “It seems that Clara and Jayne can work as a team. Clara can block Katrina while Jayne reaches her. They can’t work with anyone else. Their gifts are to be used together.”
Anne rose. “Then we’re going to do this. We must have Mika. Whether she works here with us or elsewhere, the Oracle is pivotal. There is no way to the future Teagan is helping to guide us to without her. I’m sorry to ask it ladies, but that is all there is to it.”
I was glad I wasn’t in charge. Daniella’s Guards—who were these girls’ fathers—took stances around them like they would their mother. There was so much love in this room. The battles, the fighting, the horror, the pushing back against a losing battle, made it easy to forget that all of these people were in love.
Krystal rose. She stepped to the side, looking at us when she did. “How bad is it there?”
“Just as bad as you can imagine.” I set Mika down on the couch, smoothing her dark curls off her forehead. When I spoke again, it was low. I liked to believe she could hear me. All I knew about the place where she was came from Krystal’s descriptions. A dark and lonely road.
“We’re here, and you’re coming back to us.” I stepped back, sure the others would want to speak to her, too, only they didn’t move. Neil nodded to me. It was then it dawned on me I’d been the only one whispering to her this whole time. I should feel embarrassed for doing it when it was so obviously futile, and yet, I didn’t. If there was even the smallest chance Mika could hear me, it was worth being ridiculous.
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