by Raven Steele
“I tried to prove her innocence, Rose. I really did. I followed every clue, turned over every stone, but every scrap of evidence only proved her guilt.”
“A super clean case, right?”
“Too clean,” he whispered. “But I didn’t abandon her.”
This got my attention. “What do you mean?”
“People wanted her blood, Rose. Important people. They were set on killing her.”
I gripped the phone tighter. “What did you do?”
“I talked to Ed.”
“Ed Stenberg?”
“He loved your mother. She told me as much, but she only cared for him as a friend. She also told me what a powerful spell caster he was. So even though I was just a normal human—tough as hell—”
“You bet you are.”
“—I reached out to him in confidence and shared my suspicions. He agreed with me and promised to protect her by creating a spell that would put her to sleep, not kill her.”
“How many other people know about this?”
“No one, as far as I know.”
Part of me wanted to tell him about the Enforcers coming for her soon, but I feared it might break his heart.
“Look, Rose, don’t get involved with anything. Let your mother rest. If the Enforcers were to find out what you were doing, they’d lock you up. I can’t lose anyone else. Promise me, Rose.”
The panic in his voice was unmistakable. My dad never panicked. It unsettled me to hear it.
I crossed my fingers. “Okay, Dad. I’ll drop it. For now.”
“You better because if I find out you didn’t, even a whisper of it, I’m driving up there and getting you out of that school.”
“What about my uncontrollable powers?”
“Are they still uncontrollable?”
I thought about this. They didn’t feel as uncontrolled. Not since meeting Hudson. “They’re doing better. I’m doing better.”
“Good. Don’t do anything to jeopardize that.”
“I won’t.”
“I know I don’t say it enough, but I love you, Rose.”
I squirmed in the chair. “I love you, too.”
“I have to go, but call me tomorrow. And follow the rules. They are there for your protection.”
“You got it, Dad.”
After we said goodbye, I hung up the phone and decided to break one more rule.
I had maybe an hour before life awakened at Solar Academy, and that’s only because it was the weekend. If it had been a school day, many students and teachers would already be up preparing for the day.
Keeping to the shadows, I navigated my way to the elevators and, once inside, pressed the down button to the basement. I didn’t have a plan, but when had that ever stopped me?
I had to do this. I had to see my mother.
Chapter 21
Once the elevator door opened, I made sure no one was around before I turned the opposite direction of the archive room. It was a long hallway, and at the end I stopped at a steel door, feeling my hairs lift. Even the tips of my long hair lifted up past my shoulders. Bennie had said magic guarded this place, but what kind and could I get around it with my fire?
In addition to the magic in the air, there were three vertical locks on the door trailing up from the handle. I could melt them, but then someone would know for sure it had been tampered with, and how many kids at this school had the ability to reach temperatures that high?
One.
I would immediately be kicked out. Where would that leave my mother?
“Rose?”
I jumped and whirled around, my face paling. Busted.
Mr. Stenberg stood at the end of the hall, his brows furrowed. “What are you doing down here?”
I thought about saying I got lost again, but then the teachers might worry something was wrong with my brain. Instead, I opted for the truth. It was much more pathetic and might garner some sympathy.
“My mom’s past there.” It was a statement that should tell him everything he needed to know.
His gaze flickered to the door behind me, his eyes sad. “Yes, she is, but I can promise you, she’s comfortable and in a pleasant place.”
I hated that I could feel my eyes watering. “How can you know that?”
He walked towards me and stared down at me kindly with soft brown eyes. “Because it’s how I crafted the magic. I didn’t want her to suffer when I put her under. I wanted her to have pleasant dreams, to dream of what her life might’ve been, to dream of her daughter. I can assure you, she’s at peace.”
I quickly wiped at an escaped tear with the back of my hand. “My father said you saved her.”
His gaze lowered to the floor. “I can’t say the fate I gave her is any better than death.”
“But she’s alive, which means maybe I can prove she’s innocent.”
He looked up at me. “Do you really believe that?”
“I want to…” I let my voice trail off. I couldn’t tell him what I’d discovered in the cave or the vampires surrounding the school. It would get too many of us in trouble.
“Would you like to see her?”
My heart dropped into my stomach in a move so sudden, words caught in my chest. I cleared my throat. “Are you serious?”
“It will be our little secret.” He winked at me and removed a keyring with three keys on them from his pocket. Did he carry the keys to my mother’s jail with him everywhere?
I stepped out of the way so he could unlock the door. “As long as I’m with you, the magical wards we placed here will not go off.”
He inserted the last key and pushed open the door. It groaned angrily back at him and hissed a cool breath in our faces. Darkness greeted us on the other end.
“Do you come to visit my mother a lot?”
He walked past the threshold and flipped on a light. “More than I should. This way.”
I hurried to catch up to him down a narrow, dimly lit hallway. It smelled like sulfur. Magic.
“Why’s that?” I called up to him.
Over his shoulder, he answered, “It’s no secret I had a crush on your mother when we were younger. I was never ashamed to admit it, but I did honor her wishes when she chose to love your father, a human.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I suppose it doesn’t.” He was quiet for a long moment as we continued to walk until we reached a metal, circular stairway. He descended the steps, then said, “I come to see your mother at least weekly. I read to her. I don’t know if she can hear me, but I like to think so.”
I said nothing to this and continued to follow him down the metal staircase, around and around. So many steps I dreaded going back up. “Isn’t there an elevator?”
“No. Only this access. One way in, one way out.”
I glanced over the railing, growing slightly dizzy. A faint light revealed the concrete bottom not far away. “How much further?”
“We’re close. One more security door.”
My throat grew thick with anticipation, and my pulse raced. I couldn’t believe after all these years I was going to see my mother again.
At the bottom, our footsteps echoed against the stone floor as we once again traveled a long hall. This one wider than the others with doors on each side. “What else is down here?”
He glanced to the doors as if he could see through them. “Nothing now. This used to be a holding facility for the ISA before the US government joined forces with them and moved it to a more secure location.” His voice lowered. “Terrible things happened here. It’s a part of our history I’m ashamed of.”
I wanted to ask more about it, but a wide metal door came into focus at the end of the hall. I don’t know how, but I could sense my mother beyond it. The fire inside of me had grown hotter, not with flames of fury, but of love.
Mr. Stenberg stopped at the door and turned around. “I always knew there would come a day when I guided you here. I thought it would be under different circumstanc
es, but we can’t always get what we want, now can we?”
“What circumstances?”
The aged lines at the corner of his eyes bunched together as he smiled. “You coming to free her because I proved her innocence.”
“Maybe you still can.”
He chuckled a little like it was a ridiculous notion, then turned back to the door. He slid his finger into a small opening near the door handle, then winced and jerked his finger back as the door clicked open.
“What happened?” I asked, my eyes wide. His finger was bleeding.
“My blood opens this door. Only a few others in the world can open it as well. No one else is permitted inside.”
I barely heard his words. The world had grown silent as the door opened, revealing the room that held my mother. It was large, the ceiling thirty feet high. In the center, a bright light with red hues shined down on my mother as she slept on a single bed inside an iron-barred cell. She had been dressed in a long cotton gown. Her blond hair spilled over the edge, her cheeks tinged pink, her lips the same. She looked so alive, as if she was just napping. I almost called out to her.
“She looks the same,” I breathed, tears stinging my eyes. I drew closer to her and placed my hands on the cool bars. If I strained myself, I might even be able to touch her.
“Interesting,” Mr. Stenberg said from behind me.
“What?” I didn’t turn around to look at him.
“You’re touching the bars. No one is able to do that. We spelled it with magic.”
My eyes slid to my hands. I hadn’t noticed until now, but they were burning far hotter than the rest of my body. I let them go and stepped back, not because they hurt, but because I didn’t want Mr. Stenberg to think any more about it. It was a good thing I could touch them. Maybe I could free her this way.
“So you haven’t found anything to prove she’s innocent,” I said, clarifying what he’d said earlier.
“Unfortunately, no.”
I studied him, his steady expression as he watched my mother sleeping, his hands stuffed in his pockets, the longing in his eyes. He still loved her. Maybe I could trust him. It was worth a try.
“Can I show you something without getting in trouble?”
He tore his eyes away from my mother. “It’s not illegal, is it?”
“I don’t think so, but it’s definitely frowned upon.” I pulled out my phone from my pocket and found the image of the upside down F.
“What is it?”
I hesitated briefly before turning the phone towards him to show him the image. “This symbol was on a letter I found. What does it mean?”
As soon as he saw it, he flinched and stepped back. “Delete that from your phone right away.”
“I will, but what does it mean?”
He glanced around, as if checking that we were truly alone. “Was this a recent letter you found?”
I nodded.
“Where?”
“That part I’m going to keep secret, but it was signed by someone named Hawk.”
Of all the things we’d said in the last thirty minutes, this got his attention the most. “Impossible!”
“Who is he?”
Mr. Stenberg stumbled to the chair near my mother’s cell and sat down. “You shouldn’t know these things.”
Heat surged inside me to a dangerous level. I closed my eyes briefly to quiet them. “Bullshit. I’m her daughter. Tell me what you know.”
He studied me. “Hawk was the head of the Foundation. He was captured just after Aurora killed all those people. The Enforcers took him to the ISA, and he should have been tried and executed for his crimes.”
“Then why did I discover recent letters with his signature?”
He shook his head, his eyes still sad, defeated even. “Maybe someone pretended to be him.”
“Who was the real Hawk?”
Mr. Stenberg’s eyes drifted back to my mother. “His name was Loren, and he was a very charismatic and powerful warlock. Many were drawn to him. He promised great things for our kind, and many were led away.”
“But not you.”
“I wish I could say that were true. I joined the Foundation in its early stages. Many of us did, but I joined for different reasons.”
“My mother.”
He nodded. “Even though I admired Loren, I felt something was off with him. I wanted to make sure Aurora was safe.”
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure exactly. He drew Aurora into his confidence. Trained her to use her fire more effectively. I don’t know what he said to her in private, but she began to change. Became obsessed with power. Both Linda and I were concerned.”
“She was part of it?”
He nodded slowly. “We tried to talk Aurora out of training with him, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She wasn’t just being stubborn. It truly became an obsession, like she couldn’t think about anything else.”
“Do you think she was spelled?”
“For a long time I did, but I’m not so sure now.”
“Well, I’m going to found out.”
“It’s too late for that.”
My fingers curled into my palms, my fingernails digging into my flesh. “No. She’s innocent. I know it.”
“You misunderstand me. The ISA gave us ten years to try and break the spell I put on Aurora. Since we haven’t been able to do it, they are coming for her.”
He confirmed what Linda had already told me. “But we still have a few weeks. There’s still time to find out this Hawk person is. Maybe he’ll have new information.”
He shook his head. “We don’t have two weeks, Rose. We have one.”
Chapter 22
I had one week to save my mother’s life.
Seven days.
One hundred and sixty-eight hours.
I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I had to save her.
Scooting my eggs along my plate, my mind raced with how to do it. So far, all I had were a handful of letters signed by Hawk, and the tree that had nearly killed me. I’d be laughed at more than I already was if I tried to convince anyone that those things proved my mother was innocent.
But I wasn’t hopeless.
I had two leads.
The first, Anne Pearson.
I was certain she had placed the letter signed by Hawk in the archive room. Where had she gotten it? Had it been addressed to her? Was she Wolf?
Second, Arrow’s tattoo and the cave with the white oak tree. They were connected somehow. And because I was fairly certain Arrow’s tattoo was a hawk, those things were connected to the letters, too.
I just had to prove those things. Then make a connection to my mother’s innocence. It felt impossible.
“I’m going to have you committed if you don’t answer me.”
I heard the words, but didn’t register they were directed at me.
“Rose!”
I jumped and looked up.
Ireland stood across from me at the breakfast table with Bonnie and Bennie on each side of her. Her hair hung long and dark over a gray sweater that said in pink writing: I wish I was a unicorn so I could stab assholes with my head.
“Are you conscious?” she said.
I blinked. “I am now. Nice shirt.”
“My nanna gave it to me.”
Bonnie pulled out a chair and sat down next to me. “Where were you just now?”
Bennie joined her on my other side, his hair messy with dark circles under his eyes. He looked how I felt. “Probably wishing she was anywhere but here,” he said. “I know I am.”
“We all wish that, Bennie,” Ireland said. She walked around to my side and knelt down at the table between me and Bonnie. She snatched my only sausage and stuffed it into her mouth.
“I got some bad news a few hours ago,” I began.
“At five in the morning?” Ireland said through a mouthful of pork.
“I snuck down to try and see my mother.”
All three froze and slowly turned
to me. Before they could say anything, I told them all that had happened after we had separated the night before, including the cave, and what Hudson and I had found inside. When I was finished, no one said a word.
“You guys have to help me. I need to prove her innocence before the Enforcers show up for her, which is in one week.”
“So soon?” Ireland asked.
Bonnie sucked in a breath. “What do you need?”
“I was hoping someone could keep an eye on Ms. Pearson.” I paused. “And maybe Mr. Stenberg, too.” Even though I didn’t think he was involved with anything, I couldn’t be too careful. But if I was going to keep an eye on him, then I should include Linda, too.
“Spying on teachers?” Ireland asked. “So up my alley. Of course I’ll help. I call dibs on Pearson. She creeps the hell out of me.”
“I guess I can take Mr. Stenberg,” Bonnie added. “I have a couple of classes with him.”
“What do you want me to do?” Bennie asked. He was scribbling on the table, drawing a cartoon face of a scary clown.
“Could you get close to Arrow? Find out if that tattoo of hers is really a hawk and maybe what she was doing in the woods last night.”
He stopped scribbling. “I can do that.”
Bonnie snorted. “She won’t give you the time of day.”
“You don’t know this, sister, but I’m actually quite slick with the ladies.” He swiveled his head around, stopping when he spotted Arrow on the other side of the dining room. He pushed his chair back. “Time to get to work.”
As he walked away, Ireland asked, “What about Hudson?”
“I don’t want him involved,” I said quickly, then lowered my voice. “His father’s an Enforcer for the ISA.”
“Shit,” Ireland breathed.
“Besides, he’s researching the symbols that were on the tree. That’s as involved as I want him.” My inner flames began to cool unexpectedly.
“You want me?” a familiar voice said behind me.
I turned around, my heart leaping at the sight of Hudson smiling. His wind-swept hair looked like he’d been on a beach all night and not stuck with me in a cave. His backpack was slung over his shoulder.