by Rob Cornell
Mom patted my hand. “I’ll show you around later. You need to listen to Ms. Strand now.”
“Okay,” I said. “Fire away.”
Rachel raised a finger. “Just a moment. We have one more coming.”
As if the mere words had summoned her, Fiona came out from the door of a side room under the staircase. She wore a pair of brown cargo pants and a long-sleeved top that fit snugly. She had her blond hair in a ponytail that hung only an inch or so past the nape of her neck. Not even all those pockets in her pants could hide her trim figure. She only stood about five-four, but she moved with a feline grace that made her look taller. I remembered the figure, but the gait was something new.
Her gaze flitted to me, then slipped away as she lifted her chin and looked straight ahead. She took up position beside Rachel, arms slack at her sides, gaze still seemingly directed at nothing.
Rachel looked to me. “I know this must be awkward for you. I’m familiar with your shared history with Ms. Templeman. I ask you to put whatever feelings you have about that history aside for now.”
I narrowed my eyes, staring at Fiona even though she refused to look at me. “Why should I?”
“Because the stability of the Ministry depends on it.”
That shifted my angry glare into a brow-wrinkled WTF? look at Rachel. “You’re going to have to explain that one.”
“The conspiracy you uncovered back in October had more faces behind it than those you came up against. Others still linger in the ranks, from top to bottom.”
I half sighed, half groaned. “I’d worried as much. How many are we talking?”
Despite her all business face, Rachel let a short laugh slip. “We haven’t a clue. I’ve had GMF guardians poking around, but we have only found two we can prove beyond doubt were involved.”
“I assume you’ve interrogated them by now. What have they told you?”
“Not much. Vague generalities. Unfortunately, both of them died before we could learn more.”
My heart squeezed. I flashed back to the room for the black witches. “You killed them in the process of interrogating them?”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Not hardly. We discovered sigils carved into their skulls. They only required a spark of magic to activate them. We found them with their skulls literally empty. Their brains seemed to have evaporated.”
I cringed. That was some sick magic right there. “Suicide. That’s like those spies with a fake molar full of cyanide. How did you get anything out of them first?”
“They weren’t sorcerers. They didn’t have their own magic. They apparently had managed to draw energy from one of their interrogators.”
I crossed my arms and leaned back on the sofa. The cushions felt a little stiff, favoring form over function. “What does any of this have to do with me?” I nodded at Fiona. “Or her?”
“I’m putting together a task force to seek and eliminate the traitors. You would have carte blanche on how to deal with them…or with finding them. Your experience—and Ms. Templeman’s—with these foes could help a great deal.”
“I don’t know anything more about them than what they had planned and who I had to kill to stop them. I don’t know how much more help I could be. And honestly?” I pointed at Fiona. “I don’t think you should trust a thing that comes out of her mouth. She could still be in on it.”
Fiona’s lip curled. “Do you really believe that? Don’t you think I want to atone? You know why I helped them. I didn’t do it by choice.”
I stood. “I am prepared to do anything to save someone I love…except betray the others I love. You had a choice.”
“Fine. You’re right. I could have—should have—done things differently. But I made the right decision in the end. I turned against those bloodsucking freaks, and I lost my mother because of it. So fuck you and your high and mighty bull shit. Get over it. There’s something more important going on here.”
I opened and closed my mouth, thinking I had a comeback that never ended up tripping off my tongue.
Rachel cleared her throat. “I’m glad we worked through that.”
“I haven’t worked through anything,” I snapped.
“Very well, then. Let’s change the subject for a moment. Let me explain to you the stakes here.” She gestured toward the couch, inviting (or demanding) I sit.
I hesitated a second. I didn’t want to do anything anybody else wanted me to do. I wanted to rebel against everything. I didn’t even want to breathe. To hell with what my body wanted from me. I would do my own damn thing. But, obviously, I had to breathe. And I went ahead and sat, too, but only because Rachel had taken so much trouble getting me here. I’d hear her out, then I would tell her no.
“You know,” I said as I sat, “the Ministry already hired me once. Didn’t last long, though.”
“This isn’t the same thing.”
The temp had been perfectly comfortable when I’d entered the suite, but now I felt feverish. I shrugged my coat off, folded it in half, and set it on the couch next to me.
“I liken these traitors to termites,” Rachel went on. “They’re so small, any single one seems utterly benign. But with enough of them chewing through the walls, the foundation, the supports, eventually the house will crumble and fall.”
“But are these termites even eating anymore? The whole crux of their plan is impossible now. Isn’t it more a matter of your pride weaseling these asswipes out?”
Rachel’s expression hardened. “Do you think I would have brought you, the Unturned, into the Ministry Seat for the sake of pride? Do you think I would have invited Ms. Templeman, known for conspiring with vampires, if all I wanted was to weasel out a few asswipes?”
I gritted my teeth while I let that Unturned remark roll off my back. “The Ministry has done a lot of things over the years I don’t get. No offense, but I really can’t see the point of this.”
“Only because you haven’t let me finish.”
I felt myself getting antsy. I kept seeing Fiona in my periphery no matter how much I tried to focus on Rachel. They stood too close. And why was that traitorous shifter standing there like a military lackey? Sit the fuck down, bitch.
I swallowed. “Please,” I said. “Finish.”
Rachel clasped her hands behind her back again. “We have reason to believe they have aligned themselves with a powerful outside force in an effort to enact a coup. And not just any coup. Apparently, according to the nervous rantings of one of our former captives, they have designs on taking over the GMF. I’m not clear on motives, but I imagine their failure in Detroit has made them a little…”
“Butt hurt?”
She snorted. “Something like that.”
All right. This was more serious than I thought. But was a global coup really something the conspirators could pull off? How many of them were there? How much power could they possibly wield against the whole gods damned Ministry?
“You said they’ve aligned with an outside force. Who are we talking here? More vampires?”
“No.” Rachel visibly swallowed. Her gaze went from Mom to Fiona, and back to me. “I haven’t shared this part yet. You must be certain not to underestimate their power.”
“Just tell us.”
“Right.” She nodded quickly. “From what intel we could gather, the traitors have enlisted the help of the Maidens of Shadow.”
Oh, fuck.
Chapter Forty-Eight
All the air went out of my lungs. My gut felt like it had taken a bullet. A ringing grew in my ears. And a mantra kept echoing in my head.
You stupid son of a bitch.
You stupid son of a bitch.
You stupid son of a bitch.
What had I done?
Well, it looked like I had handed over an easy-peasy way for the Maidens of Shadow to assist in the overthrow of the Ministry.
You stupid son of a bitch.
But what was I going to do about it? I couldn’t cop to it. The Ministry forbids trading in so
uls. (Although, if they had a black witch on retainer, they really didn’t have much moral ground to stand on.) Still, this wasn’t any old soul. It was the soul of a sorcerer, and whatever the Maidens planned to do with it, I would be pretty stupid to think it didn’t have something to do with their new relationship.
I could only imagine what was in it for them.
I had this information, though. Something Rachel needed to know so she could fully understand what they were up against.
“Sebastian?”
Rachel studied me, her head tilted.
I gave a tight smile. I probably looked like the Joker with how pasted on it felt.
“Do you see the serious nature of our situation now?”
I cleared my throat. “Oh, yeah.”
“We’ve had dealings with the Maidens,” Mom said, and I wanted to shrink down and slip between the couch cushions. “In fact, they helped us. Twice.”
Rachel raised an eyebrow, her focus still on me. “Is that so?”
With that stupid smile still on my face, I nodded. “Yep.”
The light in the room seemed especially bright. A large crystal chandelier like you’d find in an old rich person’s mansion loomed above us. It hadn’t seemed so bright when we first arrived.
“What was the nature of your dealings?” Rachel asked.
Mom started telling the story, which was good, because I didn’t think I could form a full sentence at the moment.
My skin crawled. I wanted out of there. I couldn’t be a part of this. I had to get my soul back from the Maidens before they destroyed the only infrastructure the magical world possessed. The Ministry kept the line between the natural and the supernatural taut, forced law on otherwise lawless creatures, protected not only those aware of its presence, but so, so many who didn’t have a clue.
A coup from these losers could destabilize that balance. Gods help the entire human race if it did.
Mom must have given the quick version, because everyone was staring at me, even Fiona, as if I’d fallen asleep in class. I blinked, bobbled my head up and down. “That’s about it.”
Mom gave me a sidelong glance. Rachel furled her brow. Fiona looked like she felt sorry for me.
“Sebastian,” Mom prodded. “Tell her about Sly.”
“You mean, you didn’t?”
“My heavens, son, what’s wrong with your ears?”
I held up my hands. “Sorry, sorry. This is all a lot to take in. Especially…well, especially because of my recent dealings with the Maidens.”
“Which were?” Rachel asked.
Sorry, Sly, I thought. I’ve gotta spill the beans. Don’t hate me when you come back to life.
“In order to get the Maidens to help us,” I said, “my friend Sly Petrie traded them a piece of his soul.”
Rachel’s eyes went wide. Her lips parted as if she meant to gasp, but nothing came out.
I followed up quickly. “You have to understand. We were in a rough spot. We couldn’t quite trust the Ministry. And it’s a good thing, in retrospect, that we didn’t. He just wanted to help get my mom back from those vamps. He’s been a friend of the family for a long time.”
Rachel regained her composure, smoothed her skirt down along her hips, and drew her shoulders back. “We’ll worry about how to handle your friend later.”
“There’s nothing to handle. He’s dead.”
“Oh.”
Now Fiona’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. Sebastian…”
“Forget it,” I said with more venom than I’d intended. Not that I was sorry for it.
Fiona stepped back as if pulling herself out of the line of my verbal fire.
“Were the Maidens responsible for his death?” Rachel asked.
“Indirectly,” I said. “He probably would have survived if he’d had all of his soul.”
Rachel’s jaw bulged from clenching her teeth. Her nostrils flared as she took a few deep breaths. “These woman are a menace,” she said evenly. “You should have never bargained with them.”
“Trust me. I know it. Boy, do I.”
Mom gave me a questioning look. I ignored it. She didn’t know what I’d done, or even that I’d gotten Sly’s soul back. I would break all that to her far, far away from the Ministry Seat and one of its top officers, thank you very much.
A weird silence fell between us. So much had been thrown out there, I think we all needed a second to process. This was probably my last chance to fess up about trading my soul, too. I kept it to myself much longer, the cover up would end up…well, not worse than the crime, but really bad.
Maybe I could spin the truth to get enough of it out there without totally buying myself a ride on the Ministry prison transport.
“There’s something else.”
All three women turned to me. The weight of their gazes seemed to push me down. I felt shorter. And that damn chandelier was making my eyes hurt.
“Do you remember that attack at Royal Oak General? The incident that brought you and I together in the first place?”
Rachel nodded. “How could I forget?”
“That creature was the work of the Maidens.”
“Why would they attack you?”
“Well, I got the impression they were, um…using Sly’s soul for something not so good. So I confronted them about it. I think they wanted to scare me enough to leave them alone. Or kill me. They might have wanted that.”
Rachel crossed her arms and cocked her hip. The stance made me think of that poor little girl who stood outside while I melted the head of her mom’s boyfriend. My stomach did a little tumble.
“What made you suspect them?”
Crap. I had led her exactly down the path I had wanted to avoid. Before I could think up a lie, Mom told the truth. Well, a half-truth, thank the gods.
“Sly grew sick,” she said. “It was obvious his condition was related to their possession of his soul.”
“So,” Rachel said, drawing out the word while she put together the next thought. “Are they responsible for his death or not?”
“They are,” Mom said so firmly even I believed her for a second.
Rachel seemed to accept the answer, giving a short nod.
Mom had just saved me from having to tell Rachel about murdering Horton the Tree Man.
Best mom ever.
“We certainly have a lot to deal with,” Rachel said. “And now that we have it all out there, I need to know where you stand Sebastian. Will you join us? Help us save the Ministry?”
As much as I hated becoming a Ministry insider, how could I refuse a question like that? She might as well have asked, Do you want to sit on your lazy ass or save the world?
“I’m in.”
Save the world it is!
Chapter Forty-Nine
At nightfall, I got the chance to fill Odi in on all the fun he’d missed. I found him in one of the upper rooms in the suite. They had furnished him with a smooth, steel casket that kind of looked like a torpedo with a flat bottom. As I gave him the details, I heard a lot of “whoa” and “aw, dude” and “no way, man.” I kept the story the same as how I gave it to Rachel. Once we got back home, I could tell Mom and Odi the real deal.
Couldn’t wait for that fun time. I was sure to get a real positive response. Heh.
Once I had Odi up to speed, the five of us—me, Odi, Mom, Rachel, and Fiona—met back at the center of the common room. It had become our unofficial little command center.
Rachel and Fiona sat on one couch together, while I had my peeps sitting on either side of me on the other couch. It kind of felt like a quiz show—the Light team versus the…whatever they wanted to be. It still irked me how easily Rachel had accepted Fiona into the fold, but I suspected they had spent a good deal more time together before I came into the picture.
I noticed Odi giving Fiona a dirty look.
I patted his shoulder. Good apprentice.
After we all settled in, Rachel folded her hands in her lap and scanned each of us. “T
his is an odd crew,” she said. “No doubt about it. But we’re working toward a greater good here. We need to keep that in mind.”
I felt Fiona’s gaze on me, and I made a point not to meet it.
“Before we can even begin to smoke out the Ministry traitors, we need to deal with the threat at hand. According to Sebastian, the Maidens of Shadow are preparing a complicated ritual of some kind.”
Powered by my soul, you’re welcome very much.
“That’s all we know, however. The good news is, we do know where they are, and they have no reason to suspect we’ve caught wind of their involvement with the coup. A concentrated strike could end their plans before they begin.”
I cleared my throat. “We don’t know where all of them are. The young ladies on Ferry Street only represent a little more than half of the coven.”
Rachel drew back. “What are you talking about? I don’t have any information like that.”
“Those girls have moms,” I said. “And I’ve dealt with one of them in person.” I put the brakes on my mouth. I had once again opened myself up to some awkward questions.
Mom slowly turned to me. “You have?”
“Just a small conversation,” I blurted. “Enough to guess they’re probably more powerful than the younger Maidens we already know.”
“Fantabulous,” Odi said.
“I know the mothers were visiting their daughters, trying to put this ritual together. But I got the impression they weren’t staying with them.”
Rachel massaged one of her temples with her fingertips. “This keeps getting better.” Despite her being in business mode, I saw a glimpse of her more expressive self. Only not the bright, smiling side. She looked ready to chew the legs off one of the nearby chairs.
After a couple breaths, she recovered. “But you think the mothers are necessary for the ritual?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll have to wait.”
Odi scrunched up his nose. “Wait for what?”
But I already knew what she meant, so I answered for her. “Until after they’ve begun the ritual.”
Chapter Fifty
Home never felt so good. The moment I stepped into the house, I made a beeline for the sofa and plopped down. I slouched, exhaustion deflating me like a blow-up sorcerer. Between all the verbal maneuvering to keep my secret from Rachel, the energy I burned ignoring Fiona, the hike back to the clearing, and the wild magical ride back to the lumber yard in Auburn Hills, I had tapped myself dry.