by Sadie Moss
“It’s not about being a… ‘Blighted-lover.’ It’s about justice. Punishing the right people instead of just lashing out blindly. You don’t think I want to find out who did this? It was my grandmother who died in the explosion. I want to find the culprit as much as anyone here. But I don’t think it was one of the Blighted. I think it was one of the Gifted. And I think it was the same person who’s been abducting magic users.”
“One of the Gifted?” Victor scoffed. “Sit down, little girl, and don’t speak until you know what you’re talking about.”
“I do—!” I started, but Theron Stearns slapped the table hard enough to make me jump.
“Sit down, Miss Lockwood, before I reconsider my decision to have you on this council.” His voice was cold, and I knew I’d lost one of the only potential allies I had in this room.
Jonas smirked as I sank back into my chair. Rain met my eyes thoughtfully, his expression almost sympathetic, but I glanced away.
Who the fuck had I been kidding? Had I really thought I was going to take my grandmother’s place on the council and actually bring about change? Convince these people that the bigoted beliefs they’d held for decades were wrong?
The meeting continued on, and I held my tongue, doing more listening than talking. If I couldn’t change things from the inside, I needed to gather as much intel as I could for the Resistance. My dreams of a peaceful revolution suddenly seemed foolish and naïve. Those in power wouldn’t give it up easily, and the fight for reform would be long and likely bloody.
My ears perked up when Jonas stood and gave a report on his efforts to find the Resistance. Since the tracking spell had been destroyed, Jae’s concealment spell was once again working properly.
Jonas’s face reddened as he admitted the Peacekeepers had been unsuccessful in their planned attack on the Resistance’s location despite repeated attempts over the past few weeks. I took grim satisfaction in knowing that, as much as Jonas underestimated his son, Jae was beating him at this game.
The Minister of Justice reported that he had instead refocused the Peacekeepers’ efforts on tracking down individual Resistance members. I made careful note of the four names he mentioned as their next targets; I’d have to tell Christine to get them somewhere safe immediately.
I waited anxiously for her name to be mentioned, but it never was. How much did they know about her besides her name? Anything?
By the time the council meeting wrapped up, my mind was spinning. I still wasn’t exactly sure who had been in charge of ordering the hit on Akio, or who had managed all the tracking charms in that room on the fifth floor. I got the sense Jonas just handled the enforcement aspect, not the intelligence gathering, but I didn’t dare come straight out and ask. It would draw too much suspicion, and I was on thin ice already.
Theron stood from the table, and everyone else rose too, bowing their heads slightly as he departed. Nicholas and Victor slunk off together, heads bent in quiet conversation as they each threw poisonous glances my way. Jonas didn’t even bother looking at me as he left. That seemed to be his favorite method of dealing with irritants.
I moved slowly, lingering by my chair until the room was mostly cleared out. As Olene pushed through the heavy doors with Simon a few steps behind her, I made a move toward Rain, who was gathering a stack of papers from the table.
The door shut with a thunk and the room was silent for a moment.
“Do you need something, Miss Lockwood?” Rain asked, without looking up.
“Yeah, I just… I wanted to thank you. For having my back. If you hadn’t said something, I’m not sure I would’ve made it out of here alive, much less been allowed to join the council meeting.”
He looked up, his thin lips pursed, a strange expression in his brown eyes. “My pleasure.”
I turned to leave, but then hesitated.
Those eyes. The bags under them. The brown hair swept back from his face. There were streaks of gray in it now, but I was positive—it had been Rain in my dream.
He stood, walking toward the door, but before he could leave, I called out, “You said you knew my family. Did you… know me? As a kid?”
Rain paused with his hand on the door. His back tensed for a second, and then he looked at me over his shoulder.
“How much did your grandmother tell you?”
Chapter 19
My heart seemed to hang suspended in my chest.
He had known me. That dream—memory?—hadn’t been wrong. The recurring nightmare of my father giving me the ring was a jumbled mix of words and images that sorted themselves into a different configuration every night, but I knew there was something in it that mattered.
And the last time I’d had that dream, my grandmother had been in it.
So had Rain.
I swallowed as the lanky man turned to face me fully. Then I said, “Nothing. I never really got the chance to ask her about my parents.”
“Never had the nerve” would’ve been more accurate. I’d put it off, certain I had more time and unable to gather the courage to find out about the life and family I could’ve had. With Beatrice’s death, I had thought the last connection to my past was gone. But maybe I’d been wrong.
Rain’s thick brows furrowed, and he took a few steps closer to me. “And she never mentioned me?”
I shook my head, wracking my memory. “Not that I can remember, no. Maybe in passing, but….”
He tapped one hand absently against the stack of papers he held. “We shouldn’t be having this conversation here. Meet me in the gardens in ten minutes.”
“Why?” I was immediately wary, even as curiosity flooded me.
“It’s more private, away from prying eyes and ears. There are those among the Representatives who were no friend to your grandmother, and they will be no friend to you either.”
My forehead scrunched. He seemed to be implying that he was a friend, but I’d need some solid proof before I believed that. Everything he’d done up until now had demonstrated the opposite. But I couldn’t walk away from the chance to learn what he knew.
“All right. Ten minutes.”
He nodded curtly then swept out of the room. I followed a moment later, stopping a guard to ask for directions to the gardens like I was a godsdamned tourist and not the newest member of the Representatives.
On the way downstairs, I pressed the stone of my communication charm to activate it, looking down and letting my hair fall like a curtain to hide my face.
“Guys?” I muttered.
“We’re here, kitten. Did you dominate the Representatives with your fiery wit?”
I almost laughed, even though Akio’s joke was clearly at my expense. Then I scowled, remembering the meeting.
“No. I got my ass handed to me by those fuckers. They don’t know who planted the bomb, but they’re unwilling to even consider the possibility it wasn’t one of the Blighted. Hell, I think some of them even hope it was. An attack like that by one of the Blighted is just the excuse they need to level harsher punishments on all nonmagical people, no matter what their crimes.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised,” he drawled. “The Representatives aren’t known for their willingness to listen to reason, and while I find it hard to deny you anything, they are unlikely to be swayed.”
“If only I’d bonded to them, huh?” I asked bitterly. A sound that was almost a growl echoed in my ear. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! I’d kill myself if I bonded to any of the Representatives.” Akio made another growling sound, and I decided to cut off this line of conversation before I dug the hole any deeper. “Anyway, I did find out some useful stuff.”
I reported what I’d learned at the meeting, lowering my voice to a whisper as I listed off the names of the four Resistance members who were going to be targeted next and when the attacks were going to happen.
“We’ll tell Christine. She’ll get them to safety,” Jae said smoothly.
“Good. Tell her to get them somewhere secure as soon as she
can. The Representatives are out for blood, looking for people to make an example of. They want to keep the Blighted running scared.”
“It’s working.” Corin’s voice was hard. “Tarik came back with that kid, William, a little while ago. He said the Outskirts are a mess. Mages, witches, and elementalists have been torching houses and apartment buildings. The government isn’t even sending anyone to put out the fires. It’s like they want the whole place to burn.”
I stopped, lifting my head for a moment as I tried to get my emotions under control. A couple palace staff members—witches, I was pretty sure—walked by, smiling pleasantly. I wanted to knock their teeth out. It was easy to be pleasant when you were surrounded by the pristine, peaceful beauty of an elaborate palace. Much harder when your home was burning, taking all your possessions and maybe even your loved ones with it.
“We have to stop this, now,” I choked out, once the witches had passed.
“We’re working on it, killer,” Fen said soothingly. “Christine’s got people out looking for Rat as we speak.”
I resumed my slow walk down the corridor toward the back of the palace. “Good. I’m meeting with Rain in a few minutes, and then I’ll try to talk to Gerald.”
“Rain?” Jae said. “Why?”
“I think he knew Beatrice better than she let on. I’m not sure why she never mentioned it, but he knew my whole family. Do you know much about him?”
“No.” The mage’s voice was thoughtful. “I’ve seen him at Gifted functions, but I’ve barely spoken to him. My father doesn’t like him; I know that.”
I grinned. “Suddenly, I like him a bit more.”
“Don’t trust him too much, kitten,” Akio cut in. “Don’t trust anyone more than they give you reason to.”
“Never have, never will.”
The large hallway I was in led to a set of doors smaller than those at the front of the palace, but still massively imposing. One of the guards stationed at the end of the hall opened the door for me, and I stepped lightly down the back stairs toward the sprawling gardens below. A long rectangular pool sparkled in the sunlight, surrounded by curated paths lined with topiaries. Music floated from a cluster of large trees to one side of the garden, as if the limbs themselves were an orchestra and the wind was the conductor.
I’d dawdled long enough on the way down that Rain had beaten me here. He lingered by the near end of the pond and stood straighter when he saw me, adjusting his dark blue tie.
“Gotta go, guys.”
Switching off the communication charm, I strode toward Rain. When I reached him, he turned smoothly to join me, and I slowed my pace a bit as we walked side by side along the length of the pond. He was quiet for several long beats, staring into the clear water at the brightly colored fish darting through the depths.
“Well?” I finally asked, my patience worn down to a thread after the council meeting. “You said you wanted to talk, so talk.”
It wasn’t the friendliest of opening salvos, but I wasn’t feeling particularly friendly toward the man. After all, it was his interference that had gotten me swept up in this whole mess. If he hadn’t grabbed me and made such a scene at the Grand Ball, I never would’ve met Beatrice… and for all I knew, she’d still be alive right now. I couldn’t shake the guilty feeling that it was my entry into her life, my push for her to change her beliefs, that had gotten her on the wrong side of whoever had planted the bomb.
Rain glanced down at me, his brown eyes keen and assessing. He had a slight gap between his front teeth, I noticed.
“Beatrice really didn’t tell you anything?”
I gritted my teeth. “Look, we were… figuring our relationship out. She was my grandmother, but it’s not like we’d had years of time together. I kept some things from her, and I guess she kept some things from me.”
His eyebrows rose at that, but he didn’t comment. “Then I’m assuming she didn’t tell you that I knew your father? Your mother too, though not as well. Your father and I worked together.”
My feet faltered, and I almost missed a step and fell face-first in the pond. Catching my balance, I looked up at him. “You did?”
“Yes. Dominic worked for the government, and I was a consultant—this was before the Great Death, of course. We knew each other for years and became quite close. He and your mother both died in the Great Death. Shortly thereafter, Beatrice stepped in to fill his seat, and when the council was formed, she became a Representative. I always felt a bit of an obligation to Beatrice. I tried to look out for her, in honor of her son and what he meant to me.”
My heart rate picked up at the mention of my parents. Despite my father’s frequent appearances in my dreams, he and my mother had always seemed like ideas more than actual people. As ephemeral as smoke. But talking to someone who had known them made them suddenly more real than I was ready to handle.
“So why didn’t you ever mention this before?” I challenged. “Why were you such a dick at the Grand Ball and, if I’m being honest, pretty much every other time I’ve seen you?”
Rain’s face seemed to sag, and he stopped walking, looking down. “I wasn’t prepared for the past to come back. I didn’t recognize you at first like Beatrice did—leave that to a grandmother’s intuition—though once she said it, I could see the resemblance. But it dug up old wounds. Looking at you reminds me of the friend I lost, and of the many others who were lost who won’t be coming back. It’s a bit petty, I admit, but I was almost jealous of Beatrice. Your reappearance is truly a miracle.”
The sadness in his eyes twisted the knot that had already taken up residence in my stomach. I remembered Beatrice saying something similar once, about how my sudden appearance in her life had made other Gifted people hope their long-dead loved ones would come back too.
Godsdamn it. I do not want to feel sorry for the fucking Gifted.
But I did. I couldn’t help it.
I had worked hard to make Beatrice see that the suffering of the Blighted mattered, that we felt pain as much as the Gifted did. And although it could never justify the actions they’d taken after the Great Death, I was starting to see how many of the Gifted had been permanently scarred by the sudden loss of their loved ones.
If they hadn’t blamed us for it, maybe we could’ve helped them.
Rain pursed his thin lips, gathering himself. “Your grandmother and I spoke quite often. Just recently, she confided in me her concerns about several of the other Representatives.”
My ears perked up. “Oh yeah? Who?”
“Victor and Nicholas were at the top of her list. She always knew they favored the old ways and disliked the Blighted. But your arrival solidified those concerns in her mind.” His face grew pensive. “There was someone else she was worried about, but I’m afraid she was hesitant to give me a name. She seemed almost frightened to do so. I’m not sure what her reasons were, but—”
“She never told you who?” I asked sharply, turning to him. It had to be the same person she’d been about to tell me about when the explosion hit.
I shoved down the too-raw memory of Beatrice’s face as she sat behind her desk, how small she’d seemed in comparison to the heavy piece of furniture. She had wanted to do the right thing. And I would do everything I could to honor that effort.
Rain blinked slowly, the bags under his eyes seeming more prominent as he looked down at me. “No. Did she tell you?” At my silence, he leaned in, speaking softly. “I wasn’t lying about you having enemies among the Representatives, Miss Lockwood. Take your friends where you can get them.”
I drew back slightly, eyeing him. “Oh, is that what you are now?”
A sardonic smile tugged at his lips and he squinted in the sunlight. “Well, friendly. I felt an obligation to your grandmother, and I feel the same obligation to you. I may not agree with your choice of cohort, but I don’t want our government overrun by corruption and bigotry either.”
Clamping my mouth shut against the words “too late for that,” I regar
ded him carefully, trying to get a read on his intentions.
He chuckled lightly, turning to resume walking once again. “Don’t look at me like that, Miss Lockwood. I know we’ve had our differences, but not all the Gifted are as awful as you’ve long imagined us to be.”
“Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it,” I muttered, and Rain took my elbow. His grip was surprisingly gentle, but the urge to yank my arm out of his hold was strong anyway.
“Then let me prove it to you,” he murmured, his raspy voice soft. “Let me help you.”
Not answering at first, I looked out across the vast expanse of the palace grounds. We were only about halfway down the length of the huge pool. Beautifully landscaped gardens sprawled around us. Peacocks roamed the pathways, their iridescent blue and green plumage trailing behind them like the trains of elaborate dresses.
I couldn’t trust a single person in this place.
I knew that.
Hell, I’d barely trusted Beatrice, and she and I shared DNA. But now that she was gone, I felt more alone and exposed here than ever. My four would do what they could to keep me safe, but they couldn’t help me navigate the dangerous and rocky political landscape I found myself entrenched in.
Maybe there was a way to accept Rain’s help without giving up too many of my own secrets. To get him to show me his hand while keeping my own cards hidden.
“All right.” I kicked some pebbles into the pond as we walked, then immediately felt guilty. Some poor Blighted groundskeeper was probably going to have to fish them out of the pristine pond later. “You want to help? Here’s a question for you. How do I get memories out of someone who doesn’t remember them himself?”
Rain released my arm, clasping his hands behind his back and raising an eyebrow. “Is this a riddle?”
I scowled. “No, it’s a problem I’m having. Can you help me or not?”
He looked at me intensely for a moment, as if he was trying to peer right into my soul. Or see through those cards I was holding close to my chest. “I’m sure you won’t tell me why.”