by Ellie Margot
“Can I come in?” asked Trinity from the doorway.
Riette stepped back from Mekhi and brought the flames back to life at her fingertips. “Leave,” she said in a voice that was hardly her own.
Trinity walked inside quickly and shut the door behind her. Her face was flushed, but she stood tall. “I’m not leaving until you hear me out.”
“Hear you out?”
“You don’t know what I’ve been forced to do here,” said Trinity.
“Poor thing, you were forced to almost get me killed,” Riette said, leaning forward.
Cassian crossed the room and grabbed Riette by the arms, forcing the flames back and standing between them.
“That’s enough,” said Cassian.
“Enough would be having our own little trial up here and burning this shit out—”
Cassian cut her off. “You’ve been through a lot, but we all have. The least we can do is hear her out.”
Riette swallowed. All she saw was red flashing in front of her eyes, and all that she heard was the sound of rushing water in her ears.
The sea-sickness part of her that the Siren imparted roared to life in her veins.
It was because of him, the energy of the Siren inside of her, and his bloodlust taking her over. She knew it, but knowing it and being able to do something about it were two different things.
She also knew that Cassian was right, but it was hard not to want to attack Trinity all the same.
Cassian pushed back to bring her attention back to him. Riette bit her lip and closed her eyes to will the darkness away. A moment passed, and a barely veiled level of control came through her as she tried to focus in on the sound of Cassian breathing instead of things surging beneath her skin.
“Why are you here?” she asked Trinity with her eyes still closed. She opened them just to release herself from Cassian’s hold.
Trinity stood taller and righted herself by smoothing her hands down her shirt before speaking. “I want to come with you.”
“No thanks,” said Riette.
“Riette,” Cassian started.
“Do you think it’s easy for me to be here?” Trinity asked. “I have to see all of the shit and do things that you can’t even begin to understand.” Her voice rose with every word.
“And I want to not have to worry about you turning over and stabbing me in my sleep,” said Riette. “I know where your loyalty lies.”
“Do you? You think I’m Grandmother’s puppet?”
“Aren’t you?”
“If I were, would I be giving you this?” Trinity held forward a book about the size of the box they kept their pieces of Vitan in.
Riette took a hesitant step forward and then another. “Is this...”
“Your grandmother’s book. When Allison kept Ella back, I stole away and took it. You deserve to have it, and I deserve more than I’ve been given here. You all have shown me that.”
“So what about what happened downstairs?” asked Riette.
Trinity looked at Cassian and then looked back at Riette. “I couldn’t risk Grandmother hating me if I wanted to get the book.”
“And if I got hauled off in the process?”
“Riette, anyone with eyes knows you’re capable of things that the world hasn’t seen before,” Trinity said. “They would have found out—probably the hard way, I’m guessing—if they had tried you.”
“You don’t know anything about me. There’s no way you could have known I would—”
“I’ve seen every kind of person, just about.” Trinity gave a short, humorless laugh. “I wish I were lying. You don’t know how much. So when I say to you that you’re different, I can say it with a certainty that a lot of other people don’t have.” Trinity walked closer to Riette and stopped just a breath away. She offered the book forward. “Take it. It belongs to you.”
Riette took the book from her hands, and when it touched her fingertips, text began to form on the cover.
One letter at a time appeared as if the text was being written by her grandmother’s hand in front of her. And then the text revealed itself fully, in gold lettering that shimmered in the shadows of the overcast room.
For my granddaughter, when she is ready, and not a moment before.
Chapter 23
“It’s charmed,” said Riette, and her voice was mostly air.
Then there was a sound coming from the end of the hall.
“We need to get the fuck out,” said Mekhi.
Riette took the bag off her shoulders and placed the book inside. Bark reached up to grab it and tucked it into his chest, holding it tightly.
She knew it would be safe with him. Even he could feel the power inside of it. Riette put the bag back on and turned back around.
The others grabbed the few belongings they had. Guy gathered his things, went into the closet where they had their Vitan supply, and took that too.
“Do you need to grab anything?” Riette asked Trinity.
Trinity shook her head. “I’d sooner burn it down than grab mementos.”
Guy walked over to her and adjusted the bag on his back. He smiled at her. “You’re lucky I’m rich enough to support you.”
“I can take care of myself,” said Trinity, and she moved to where Cassian was leaning over the bed, trying to reach something on the far side.
“What’s the best way out of here?” asked Corin.
“Back the way we came unfortunately,” said Trinity.
Cassian stood back up and looked over at her. “You’re going to be okay seeing your grandmother?”
Trinity touched his arm. “As long as it’s the last time I’ll have to, yes.”
Cassian looked at Riette and nodded. “We need to move.”
Riette agreed. “Let’s get the fuck out of here, shall we?” She led the way into the hall, pausing at Alex’s room. Riette turned back and sought out Trinity. “Should we invite him?”
“Alex left. Last night.”
“When Frank was killed?” asked Mekhi.
“I hadn’t thought about it. You don’t think—”
“We don’t have time to think,” said Guy. “Let’s muse poetically outside.”
Riette moved down the hallway, still leading, but she wondered where Alex had left to, if he had a home, and if he’d ever find it.
When they got to the top of the stairs, they saw Tommy restraining Ella and Billy by himself, while Mandy and Allison talked together.
They looked up at the group joining them.
“Trinity, what are you doing?” asked Ella. Venom dripped from her words.
“I’m leaving.”
“The fuck you are,” hissed Ella.
“I’m not staying here anymore,” Trinity said as she walked down the steps in a rhythmic fashion. She kept her eyes on her grandmother the entire time, never dropping her gaze.
Ella turned to face Riette, thrashing against Tommy’s arm that held her back.
“You! You did this. You’re trying to steal her from me. You are the devil.”
Riette’s tattoo burned, and her jaw clicked. She felt something shift in her at Ella’s words, as if something was being summoned from deep inside of her. Her eyes felt warm, like something was shifting behind them.
“Holy fuck,” said Allison. She stepped back, and Mandy did the same. Allison swallowed and then put her hands out but down in front of her. “Whatever is happening between you all, you need to leave. Just like we talked about.”
Riette didn’t move from the step, but she turned her head to watch Allison on the landing below.
“You need to leave,” said Allison again. “I’m not going to let anyone die on my watch.” She took a breath before making her eyes glow and speaking again. “Leave before I keep you here.”
Riette turned toward Ella. “You framed me for Frank’s murder.” Her voice sounded like it was being screamed from behind planes of broken glass.
“What have you become?” asked Ella. She stopped struggling. “
What have you brought into my house?”
Riette said nothing, but she started to continue her walk down the steps. Cassian moved to walk in front of her to be a shield between Riette and the people waiting at the bottom to greet them.
“Your grandmother would be ashamed—” Ella started.
“My grandmother’s name should never leave your lips again,” said Riette. “Don’t even think of her.”
“Leave her alone,” said Trinity. “Haven’t you done enough?”
Ella narrowed her eyes. “After all that I have done for you, Trinity? After everything I’ve given you?”
“Everything you’ve done to me,” said Trinity. “You—”
“How dare you? I have given you more opportunities—”
“And more evil than this world knows what to do with. You tried to break me, and my sin is that I let you. All of these years, I let you dictate to me about what I should do, what should be done in front of me. The things—”
“Don’t be a victim, Trinity,” Ella said, shaking her head in disgust.
“I’m not a victim,” Trinity said. “I am a monster, and at least I am owning that now.” She stood just out of reach of Ella in front of where Tommy still held her back.
“You are going to regret this,” said Ella.
“I have lived a life of regrets. More than I can count, but it doesn’t matter. What does is that I’m changing this shit now. Today, starting with leaving you.”
Trinity walked toward the door, not pausing for the others to follow.
They did, and when Riette got close to where Ella stood restrained, she shifted her bag, and there was a glow seeping out from the top of it.
“My book!” said Ella. She pointed a snarled and nearly broken finger at her, shaking. “She took my book. Stop her. Don’t let her leave here.”
Allison said nothing, and neither did anyone else in her crew.
Ella whipped around, pulling against Tommy’s arm, thrashing. “You!” she screamed at Trinity. “Only you knew where I kept the book. You did this to me.”
Trinity turned back, and there was a smile that stretched across her face that showed her teeth like a sea full of pearls. “That, Grandmother, was all my doing.”
“How could you?”
“Ah, ah, ah,” said Trinity. “Be careful, Grandmother. I’m the one who knows where all of your skeletons lie.”
“You were a whore just like your mother,” Ella said and then spit on the floor in front of Trinity, barely getting it over Tommy’s arm.
“Shit, old woman,” said Tommy, pushing his arm back to keep her from moving forward.
The room went quiet, and Trinity laughed in notes that were bitter and broken. “My mother? If she were alive, she would have kept me from you. My mother? The one you fucked with and fucked over until she died?” Trinity moved closer to Ella with each measured step. “My mother? She—”
“She wasn’t a saint either,” said Ella.
“Of course not. She’s your daughter. I’m your blood. I know how tainted that blood is, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it or live with you.” Her face was flushed.
From where Riette stood, she saw Trinity’s shoulders shaking. There was a sputtering glow coming from what Riette could see, but the lines weren’t visible, only scar tissue that seemed to crawl out from under her shirt and to her shoulder.
The glowing where the tattoo should have been wasn’t steady either. It came and went at an irregular pattern.
Corin gasped as they watched the scene unfold in front of them. Veins appeared on Trinity’s skin from the tattoo’s designed point. They were black, like vining rope, appearing all over Trinity’s body, and each one pulsed and was raised like snakes coiling over her skin.
It was as if something rotten was being pushed through Trinity’s veins and was struggling to come to the surface.
Ella was the only one that didn’t look surprise at the twisted design that Trinity was making.
“You are never allowed back here again,” Ella said, her voice sounding stronger than the look in her eyes would suggest she was. “You are dead to me.”
Trinity laughed, full on, with her head tilted back, the sound tinny but clear.
She closed her eyes, and the black veins crawled up her neck and onto her face.
When she opened them, Trinity spoke. “For as long as I live, I will never be around you again if I have any freedom left in my being.” She paused and tucked the hair behind her ears. “I’m dead? So be it. May the old me rot in the hell you made for her and let the new me be unrecognizable to you.”
Then Trinity walked to the door, opened it, and walked out into the light, leaving the rest to follow behind her.
Chapter 24
They made it outside, and Mekhi closed the door with a click behind him.
They walked out on the street, and Riette moved to where Trinity stood with her back to the rest of them.
They were in what would have been a fairly crowded place typically, but the early hour kept the streets quiet and relatively empty.
Riette was grateful for it. She knew Trinity wouldn’t want any more witnesses than she already had. She also knew what it felt like to be the freak show, and she didn’t want Trinity to have to have to suffer from it.
Trinity stood there with her shoulders hunched over and the veins still present on her skin. Her skin was also red and bumpy, as if the sun was burning her from the inside and the scorch was only available for viewing on the outside.
She was twitching, and Riette got closer to her.
“Trinity?”
There wasn’t a response. It was as if it had taken all of the energy she had had inside of her just to get her to the outside, and then she was depleted of everything that let her be her.
When Riette walked around to see her from the front, the air left Riette’s lungs. Trinity’s eyes had gone black and empty, and she still twitched with energy unspent.
“Fuck,” Riette whispered.
“What do we do?” Corin asked, her voice hidden in half of a squeak.
Riette reached out.
“Don’t touch her,” said Cassian. “We don’t know what the reaction would be.”
“We can’t leave her like this,” said Riette.
“I’ll get some water,” said Guy.
“From where?” asked Mekhi. “Back inside? We’d be killed.”
“Let me touch her,” Cassian said. “I can channel the energy.”
“Yeah, and blow us all away with your wind craziness,” said Guy. “Let me do it.”
“We don’t even know if you know how to wield your powers,” said Cassian.
“I can wield them.”
“Except in combat, or any time you’re needed, or—”
“Bite me, pretty boy,” said Guy.
“Enough,” said Riette. “I’m doing it.”
“No—” Cassian started, but it was too late.
Riette touched Trinity’s skin, and the reaction was instantaneous.
Riette’s head was thrown back, and her entire body was rocked. The only thing that kept her on the ground was the connection between her hand and Trinity’s arm.
Her eyes snapped shut, and flashes of light pulsed behind her eyes. Riette opened her mouth, not of her own accord, and music left her. It was a song she had never heard before, and it was loud and made of words from a language she didn’t speak, in a tongue that didn’t sound like her own.
The music was tilted, like a carnival meeting the sea, and it was pulled from Riette’s being like it was being ripped from the nethermost bottom of her lungs and put on display.
The music kept coming, and blood started to come with it. It dripped from the corner of her lips as the music continued to rush out from inside of her.
“Shit, fuck, fuck,” said Guy, but Riette couldn’t hear him. She couldn’t hear anything but the sound of the waves rushing in her ears and the taste of salt on her tongue.
A blinding light surrou
nded them, and the energy surged between them. It was like Riette was plugged into a power outlet that was putting out more juice than she had ever witnessed.
Riette’s body shook with the sensation, and she was thrown back again as another wave left from Trinity.
It went on for moments before it started to run down.
Cassian ran forward. He grabbed Riette’s arm and tried to pull her loose. None of the energy was transferred to him. He couldn’t break the connection.
He walked around to Riette’s back and wrapped his arm across her upper torso. He closed his eyes and jerked all of his weight against her, trying to pull Riette off. He gritted his teeth as the blood continued to drip out of Riette’s lips.
The connection broke, and the two of them fell back, landing on the ground feet away. Dust was kicked up around them and took moments to settle.
Riette laid on the ground with her eyes closed, and she heard the voices of everyone else around her. She felt herself being lifted and tried to open her eyes but she couldn’t.
“We need to get out of here,” she heard Guy say, and she struggled again to open her eyes, but it was in vain.
“You’re okay?” asked Cassian. Riette knew it wasn’t directed at her.
“I—I’m fine,” said Trinity. Her voice was shaky but clear. “I’m okay.”
Riette lost consciousness fully, and the world behind her eyelids went dark.
When Riette was finally able to open her eyes, she was at a clearing just outside of town.
Cassian stood and came closer as soon as he saw that she was awake, but when he got close enough to see her face, he uttered a curse, put his hand over his mouth, and walked a few steps away from her.
“What’s wrong, Cassian?” Riette asked. She tried to sit, but it took her a minute.
Cassian rushed back to steady her.
“I did this,” said Trinity as they all moved closer, and she covered her face.
“You all are freaking me out,” Riette said. “What is happening?”
No one answered.
She moved to turn to Mekhi, and after Cassian’s help, she was successful. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”