Now that I knew how it all worked, I had no real reason to join… except one. If Reina happened to be out there, I needed to be out there too. At least she’d be with Yemoja Roux, meaning my team would retreat if they ran into her. But I couldn’t risk it. If she strayed too far from her group, she might be the next victim of The Fallen. If I was there, I might be able to save her. I trusted Zane, but after watching Carter die, I knew Rolland was loyal to DT. Ensley’s loyalty was impossible to gauge. The penalty for being wrong would be too great.
33
Reina
Yemoja Roux and I took a gemini gate home. Just a touch of someone’s hand ported us across town. I concentrated on suppressing my emotions with all my will, but my purple glow didn’t dim. Maybe it was because my last connection to Kai was broken and I had no way of recovering it. I’d failed to protect him, and now he’d be on his own. But it wasn’t Kai on my mind as we made our way home, it was Yemoja Roux. She was so angry she could barely look at me, and when I’d tried to initiate a conversation, I was instantly silenced. It was barely noticeable in the bright afternoon sun, but I might have been subconsciously looking for it. Either way, I lost my words the moment I caught a glimpse of the faint magenta glow emanating from her hands.
This is bad.
I was arranging my apology when we reached Yemoja’s apartment and found Oden waiting outside. Perfect. His alarmed expression suggested that we were glaringly distressed, but it didn’t stop him from following us into the apartment. The moment the door shut behind us, Yemoja Roux whirled around and glared down at me. “How could you blatantly disobey me like that? I told you not to say anything and you went in there and threw a tantrum.”
“Woah, woah, woah,” Oden said, instinctively moving between us.
Frustration surged through me. “You gave up so quickly. You didn’t fight at all. If you had pushed a little, he might’ve—”
“You have no idea what you’ve done, do you? If you think you were helping Kai, you’re dead wrong.”
Oden’s face drained of color.
Yemoja paced. “And don’t get me started on the texting. At least the chairman took care of that.”
I gritted my teeth. “You knew he was wrong. You know what he’s doing is wrong. Why do you just obey?”
“This is the system!” she yelled, her voice as sharp as shattered glass. “You play by their rules. If you don’t like it, become the damn chairman, but nobody will take you seriously if you have a meltdown at the Agency.”
I shook with anger.
“All you’ve done is put a bigger target on Kai. They don’t care if he’s innocent or not. He’s the face of The Fallen, and killing him will crush their momentum. Why do you think the chairman was so quick to destroy the evidence? You’re lucky he let you walk out of there alive.”
I stepped back. “So it’s true then. The Fae are just government dogs following orders. They’re executing whoever threatens the system.”
“I’m sorry this isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, but this is how the real world works. I can't help anyone unless I remain a government Fae. I follow their rules, and make the best judgment calls I can in the moment. I don’t have the luxury of falling apart because I disagree with a decision.”
“How many innocent people have you murdered?”
She scoffed. “That’s the question? Not how many I’ve saved? Everyone wants to be Fae until it actually comes time to do the job. Life isn’t black and white. There’s no clear right or wrong. You need to grow up.”
“Everyone is so quick to tell me how I need to grow up, and that I don’t understand,” I spat. “I do understand. You’re afraid that I’m right because you know this system that you fight to protect is broken. What you’re doing...” I swallowed back tears, “what you’re helping them do, is wrong.”
I turned on my heel and headed for the door.
“Reina,” Oden said.
I heard Yemoja say, “Let her go,” before the door closed behind me.
I went straight to the school to find Bri. We were on our own now. I nearly knocked into Finn and Enzo as I darted through the office building and bounded down the stairs to the campus. I could also hear Oden chasing me down. I so didn’t need this now. I burst through the doors of Pink House, my chest heaving with exhaustion as I stepped out onto my floor. I stopped short. Sitting in a ball outside my dorm room, with her legs clutched against her chest, was Miranda. My skin burned at the sight of her, my rage still hot from our last encounter. I was not in the mood for another battle, but she was in my way. And with Oden on my heels, I needed in my room.
“Move,” I said, squaring up to her. She looked up, her eyes wet and heavy with exhaustion.
She shot to her feet. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”
I shook my head. “What?” I pulled my phone from my pocket to look at it and realized it was burned pretty badly. Like, maybe beyond redemption. That’s probably why I didn’t realize she’d called. Perfect. I saved my phone just to find it wasn’t saved at all.
Tendrils of her hair frizzed around her usually neat ponytail. “Has she contacted you? I had a vision Bri was taken.”
“My phone is ruined. What do you mean ‘taken’?”
I shoved her aside and opened the unlocked door. “Bri?” I called out, but the room felt empty.
There was nothing out of place, nothing to indicate a struggle, or even a forced entry. Just an unlocked door and an empty room.
I spun on Miranda. “I swear to God, Miranda, if this is another lie—” Standing right behind Miranda was Oden, his green eyes looking colder than I’d ever seen them. If he’d just waltzed into the girls’ dorm without being stopped, that certainly didn’t give the impression that this place was locked down.
“It’s not.” She sniffed. “I filed a report at the Agency, but they can’t do anything until she’s been missing for 24 hours. But, Reina, I saw her get taken in my vision. I came here, and when she wasn’t here I waited a little while. I called her, called you, called Oden, called everyone, and when no one knew where she was, I filed the report. I’ve been waiting here ever since.”
“I was waiting at Yemoja’s to tell you about Bri. Seems I walked into something. Something, maybe, important? That I should know about, Reina?” Oden caught me off guard when he spoke. For just a moment, my heart went into my throat, worried about how much he heard and how much he understood about my conversation with Yemoja. But I didn’t have time for this. I didn’t have time for him and his hurt feelings.
“Not now, Oden. Bri is missing and I just don’t have time for this shit now.” He bristled. I could see it on his skin. But he’d have to wait.
I shook my head. “That’s impossible. GFA is fully secure. They just increased security. She couldn’t have been taken.”
She spoke again, this time her voice filled with venom. “Why doesn’t anyone believe me?” she hissed. Her eyes pooled with tears and desperation as she grabbed me by the shoulders. “I asked security to check the footage. Nobody came into this building, and Bri can only be seen entering, not leaving.”
“Then what makes you think she was taken? Maybe she’s on another floor.”
Miranda looked around the empty hallway as if worried someone might overhear her. “My vision was blurred, but I heard her scream, I saw someone’s hands grab her, and…” She took a deep but shaky breath, “red eyes.”
My gift flared, truth. “This is so fucked!” Panic swelled, but now was the time for a level head. There was no one to turn to for help. Even the Fae wouldn’t take Bri’s disappearance seriously. I had the two people I cared most about with their lives on the line tonight and no time to worry about whether I was ready to save them or not. No graduation, no apprenticeship, no further training. It was too late for all that. All I had was what I was capable of now. I could either save them or I couldn’t. No in-betweens. My body shook with fear. If I failed, I’d lose them. My thoughts moved to something Professor Tuberose
had told me after Quan’s funeral. Our greatest fears never actualize until we're ready to face them—we just never seem to think we are. Well, I couldn’t think of a greater fear than losing Kai or Bri. Time to step up.
Turning back to Miranda, I said, “We have to go after her. If we wait 24 hours, she could be gone.”
“What happened to your phone? We need to make sure she didn’t try contacting you.”
No time to go into all that. I nodded. “Right. Okay, so here’s the plan. I’m going to get a new phone. Move my number onto it. We’ll program Bri’s number in, try contacting her, and if we don’t hear back, we’ll head out into the city to look for her… I was heading out there anyway.”
“How do you expect to find her? The city’s huge.”
“I just need to get in her general vicinity. I’ll be able to feel her. Also...” I turned and looked at Oden, who was still lurking behind us.
Oblivious to my apprehension, she wiped her face. “Got it. You’re going after Kai too?”
I glared at her, trying to shut her up, to no avail.
“Look, I know you’re not dumb enough to go after him because he’s hot. You must have a reason.”
Oden glared at me and growled, “I’d love to hear what that reason is too.”
Dammit, why didn’t I take the time to explain all this to Oden before? Now he’ll just get in the way with his blind vendetta. I couldn’t deal with him right now. I turned my back and ignored him, hoping he’d get the message that now wasn’t the time.
“Who else but The Fallen would go after Bri? They’re the only ones who have ever dared to target GFA. If we find Kai, he can help us get her back.”
“And you trust him?” Miranda asked.
“Yes,” I said, letting the silence hang between us. I saw Miranda’s conflicted emotions start to cloud her eyes. She chewed on her bottom lip. The way she avoided eye contact with Oden made me feel it had something to do with him, but every minute we wasted Bri slipped further out of reach.
Miranda grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side, glaring at Oden to let him know to back off. We stepped far enough away that he couldn’t hear us, and she whispered, “There’s something you don’t know… and I don’t know how to explain it without upsetting you.”
“Spit it the fuck out. We don’t have time.”
She started to cry. “It’s Oden,” she said so quietly I could barely hear her. “He’s… so angry, all the time. I’m worried about what he might do if he finds Kai.”
I shook my head. “He seemed fine just now, if a little pissed, but—”
“It’s fake, Rei. He’s not himself anymore. There’s so much anger. I’m kinda... scared of him.”
My gift sprouted to life. Truth. Why did the whole damn world have to fall apart at once?
“Thanks for the heads up, but I need you to pull it together. One problem at a time, okay?”
“Okay.” She sniffed. “The phone first, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, watching as she quickly smoothed out her ponytail, her aqua-colored eyes growing more determined. Oden walked up, once again asking, “Anything I should know about, Rei?”
“No. We need to go get a new phone. I need to find Bri, and that’s all I can worry about right now. I’m sorry, Oden, but you’ll have to wait. We’ll be back soon, and we can talk then.”
Oden looked at me, then, with as phony a smile as I’ve ever seen, said: “Sure, Rei, we can talk later.”
After Miranda’s warning and watching Oden’s abrupt shift to casual, I had to admit she might’ve been onto something. I just didn’t have time to work it all out. I nodded, dismissing Oden from my thoughts, and turned to Miranda.
“Follow me.”
34
Kaito
Night fell with a howling wind outside the factory, cold enough to freeze, though the season so far had been uncharacteristically warm. I sat in silence as some workers toiled away, lining slabs of glass for Ensley and me. Rolland tapped away at the screen of his cell phone and Zane paced as he supervised the workers while Ensley picked at her nails—seemingly unbothered by the actions we were about to undertake. We waited for DT’s signal, the moment when I’d truly take to the streets as one of The Fallen. My only mission was to find Reina and keep her safe if I could, but even that was a long shot now that we were no longer in contact. I might’ve had a better grip on the glass than Ensley, but she was still lethal. I’d seen it. I’d fought her, along with several students and Fae, and we still lost Quan.
Ensley had taught me more in one day than GFA did in an entire semester, and I hoped it would be enough. We planned to search alleyways separately, so I knew she’d always be three blocks away until one of us found a patrolling Fae. That meant my only chance at success was to find Reina first.
My skin pricked as DT walked in. I stood too quickly to seem casual.
“Is it time?” I asked.
His blue eyes were cold. “Can I… talk to you? I’ve had something on my mind all day.”
“Sure, Cal,” I said, hoping to loosen him up, but his posture remained rigid and his expression as stiff as a marble sculpture. I followed him as he led me away from the group to the far side of the factory.
“You lied to me,” he said.
I swallowed hard. Play it cool, Kaito. “I-I… what do you mean?” Fuck.
“I was lucky enough to stumble upon Wendy today.”
I nodded, remembering the pair’s friendly entrance earlier.
“She was quite excited about her gift. Touch memory. It’s always such a delight to get some promising gifts in The Fallen. I’ve been making due with finding creative ways for commons to assist, but having a new Elite is particularly alluring.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“The moment I understood what her gift could do, I brought her to the park where you were attacked.”
My stomach dropped. Fuck. I knew something wasn’t adding up. I’d totally forgotten that Wendy mentioned she saw me at the park. At the time, I had no clue what she was talking about and dismissed the comment. I wasn’t sure how much DT saw, but at least Wendy’s gift seemed to only be visual. He wouldn’t have been able to hear what I’d said to Reina that day.
DT’s clear blue eyes turned a deep navy. “I had planned to find your attacker using little Wendy’s new gift, but once I saw the memory of the attack, I got the impression that you know who she is.”
“Please, leave it alone. Please, Cal.”
He looked sad. “Fine, I will, but you’re going to have to face your fear sometime.”
I supposed it was better to let him assume I was afraid of Reina. I patted his shoulder. “I promise I will.”
He sighed, running his hand through his thick white hair. “It’s just… there’s something off about you lately. You seem…” His gaze softened, and I thought he looked a little dejected. “...distant.”
“I’m sorry about that. It’s just… it’s been difficult. First my parents, then being down during recovery… I don’t know… I’m just a little on edge, that’s all. I promise.”
He frowned, pouting a little. “I need you to kill a Fae tonight, for me. Prove to me you’re still with me.”
I nodded slightly, hoping to satisfy him.
“I’ve postponed my plans to attack the school for you, and if you’re not on this team anymore, I need to know, so The Fallen can move forward.”
Footsteps behind me made me whirl around. “I can vouch for him,” Ensley said. “He’ll have no problems taking down a Fae tonight.”
DT’s gaze moved between Ensley and me, but he took a long thoughtful pause before he said, “Good. See that he does.”
His frosty gaze landed on me. “Don’t let me down, Kai. You know I count on you. You guys should head out, it’s already dark. Make sure you stay off the main roads. We don’t want to lose anyone else.”
I knew Ensley’s team was once larger. I didn’t want to ask what happened to them—especially now
. It made sense that the media would hold back that the Fae were picking off members of The Fallen. With the speech DT had me read accusing the Fae of killing at will, it wouldn’t be prudent for the press to bring up more Fae killings. Although they’d likely make an exception if I was killed in the field tonight. I tried not to think about it as our small team of rebels gathered around the forklifts stacked with glass slabs. Ensley and I touched the slabs, and I instantly felt their weight pressing down on my gift before they were shattered and stuffed into the back of a trash truck. One of the factory workers was to drive it around the district where we were headed, and once the truck pulled away, I knew there was no turning back.
Ancetol’s neon lights bled into the alleyways as unwitting citizens failed to notice my team skulking through the shadows. I felt the truck’s movements as it circled the block, its shattered cargo ebbing in and out of my range. Zane nodded to me, and the four of us went our separate ways, as planned, but I didn’t feel the relief I’d expected. Instead, I wanted to reach out to them and tell them not to go. Anxiety weighed my limbs as I scanned the streets for Reina and watched my back for Fae. My body was on high alert, my hearing tuned in for the whistles of my team. One for finding a Fae. Two for being in trouble. And three for escaping Yemoja Roux.
I caught a glimpse of magenta hair and my body locked up. Yemoja Roux. My heart slammed against the owl charm on Reina’s necklace. I leaned into the neon light to get a better look and exhaled my relief when it was only a teenage girl sporting a similar color. At this rate, I was going to give myself a heart attack. Pull it together, Kai.
I moved to the next alley, trying to stay in the bluer hues of neon instead of the brighter yellow or pink. My nerves began to settle, the strength returning as the truck scooted by loaded with the lethal glass shards. I should have known it was the calm before the storm—that it would all go to shit eventually. But I didn’t. Not until the first whistle sounded.
The Brave & The Broken: Gifted Fae Academy - Year Two Page 12