Breaker (Ondine Quartet Book 4) (11 page)

Nausea rose, flooding my mouth with an acidic taste.
 

She looked like Helene.

Someone hurriedly covered her with a cheerful, floral-patterned curtain.

Chevaliers and gardinels moved among the carnage, movements efficient and expressions numb. Blaise’s white-blond hair gleamed under the streetlamp beside a sign for the Merbais library. He and Ethan dragged a body toward a waiting truck.
 

A chevalier ran to Frances and whispered. She frowned.
 

“Everything all right?”

“An infrastructure problem I need to deal with.” Uncertainty flashed across her face. “Maybe you’d like to —“

“I’d like to take a look around.”

“I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

I took my time, slowly picking a path through the debris. Here, in this vicious destruction of beauty, the Shadow had left something for me.

It was a certainty resonating deep in my bones, an instinct as strong as the stench of coppery blood, salty sea, and loamy mud assaulting my nose.
 

I stepped around chunks of wood, the edges jagged as if they’d been clawed off. On my left, long scratches gouged into the front door of a two-story home. A demillir’s head lolled on the porch near the front steps. The rest of him slumped by the door a few feet away, fingernails bloodied from his attempts to get in.
 

A slight movement came from the window. Ivory lace curtains shifted and a pale, wide-eyed child stared at me. What was etched into his face was a scar that would eventually fade over time. But it would never completely disappear.

He released the curtain and sank back into the darkness.

I pulled aside a nearby chevalier and gestured. “Kid’s in there.”

And because his job demanded it, the chevalier entered the bowels of the house and pulled back from the abyss yet another child who’d experienced something that never should have happened.

Stopping a recurrence meant ending this war.

But how do you find reason behind senselessness? How do you uncover logic behind depravity?

Where are you?
 

I scoured the eight blocks of the town center, desperate frustration mounting with each passing minute.
 

Nothing spoke to me.

No iris, no cryptic message, nothing I could use to understand what had happened here.

There was only death, raw and potent, an unadorned, merciless display of what he was capable of.

I stepped onto the whitewashed wood-stained floor of the gazebo in the town square. The position provided an unobstructed three hundred sixty degree view of the community.

A shadow darted between two buildings to the east.

I lifted my arms and pretended to stretch. My gaze remained on that alley.
 

A few seconds of nothing.

Then another brief flicker of darkness.
 

Keeping my pace slow and unhurried, I walked out of the gazebo and across the small park, heading slightly north. Once I reached the building where I saw the silhouette, I sprinted around to the back.
 

Empty.

The small parking lot ended at the treeline for the woods.

I slowly edged my way in, awareness pressing against me. The grove thickened, trees clustering around me until foliage winked out Merbais’ lights.
 

I stopped and waited.

A tall, thin shadow separated from the line of trees and emerged from the darkness. Straggly dark hair was messily tied back and a full beard now concealed his jawline. His leathery, tanned skin blended into the night.
 

“Why the hell are you following—“

I caught a streak of silver before cold metal pressed against my forehead.
 

Ray cocked his gun. “How do I know you are who you say you are?”
 

Moonlight shifted, catching the paranoia flashing through his eyes. Sudden moves were clearly out of the question.

I tilted my head slightly and exposed the side of my neck so he’d see I was Origin scar-free.

He didn’t lower his gun.

“Last time we met was at your cabin in Alaska,” I said levelly.

“Prove it.”

“Ian MacAllister led us to you. You know him and his father, Callan. You assisted us with information that led to protecting the Armicant. You were reading about Knight Templars. You like energy drinks.”

His hands were rock steady. “Tell me what I told you.”

“About?”

“About elementals.”

Ray said a lot of stuff during that meeting, most of which made no sense. But that look in his eyes meant he had no problems pulling the trigger.

I was fast, but not fast enough to dodge a bullet.

“You said the warriors must protect both. On land, they’re constrained by binding partners and binding births. Those underwater don’t understand mortal compulsions. And the created ones don’t have anything.”

Silence. He didn’t lower the gun, but he didn’t shoot either.

“Ray, you’re the one who came here and found me.”
 

“People wear all sorts of disguises and masks.”

True. “Why did you leave Alaska?”

After a long moment, he lowered the gun and my heartbeat slowed.
 

“Heard what happened. Been waiting for you.”

Once we received word of the attack, we’d moved as quickly as possible. But given the logistics of authorizing supplies and support, it’d still taken us several hours before we could get loaded and fly out.
 

Ray must’ve heard about the attack almost the moment it happened and took off. I didn’t bother asking how he’d accessed classified security communications. I’d seen the set-up in his cabin.

“You really the
sondaleur
?”

Lying didn’t seem like a good idea, especially when you were isolated with a paranoid, armed nix in the middle of the woods.

“I think I am.” I paused. “Are you here because you think I am?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks any more.” Ray shrugged. “He thinks you are.”

I stilled. “You mean the Shadow.”

Ray turned aside and mumbled, “Always watching, you know. He’s always watching,”

According to Ian, Ray had been tortured and imprisoned by Aquidae before managing to crawl his way out of the hellhole.

Had the Shadow done that to him?

I remembered the cameras in Lyondale Hospital, the way Bastien had smiled directly at us.

He’s always watching
.

I wasn’t sure why Ray was here, but I was pretty sure the stimuli was overwhelming for someone who’d isolated and locked himself away in the Alaskan wilderness for years.

“Come on. Let’s go into town and —“

“Can’t.” He shook his head vigorously. “No. Can’t see that.”

Panic edged his voice.
 

“All right,” I said soothingly. “Do you know where Frances lives?”

The tension in his frame relaxed slightly. He nodded. “Saw Ian earlier.”

“Why don’t you join them? I’ll stop by later.”

Hanging out with the other nixes would probably be the best thing for him at this point.

He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes dark, bottomless pools, then melted back into the shadows.
 

As I returned to the town square, a truck slowly passed with bodies haphazardly arranged in the bed. It was headed for the morgue.

I grabbed ahold of the tailgate and leaped in. The stench of death assaulted my nose and I concentrated on not gagging.
 

The truck continued west. Fewer buildings lined the street until the road ended at a large field. Several large buildings populated the empty space and a white wooden sign swung eerily in the breeze. Merbais Academy.

I helped unload the bodies into the cafeteria.

Ondines surrounded the one-story clapboard building, their faces pale and fragile, wisps of white threads emanating from their hands. Magic lowered the temperature around the structure, preserving the bodies for identification until they could be disposed of.

I shivered and pulled my coat around me. Inside, chairs had been haphazardly tossed aside. Tables were pushed toward the walls, each holding shapes covered in a sheet.

The worst were the short ones, the lumps no longer than four feet. Parents grieved over those, the whimpers and sobs of.

I almost missed her.

A shock of red stood out against the white clapboard walls along the north corner, tucked slightly away from the rest.

That red head was bent over a young ondine in her twenties with fine-boned, intelligent features so familiar it took my breath away. Their hair was the exact same shade, though Noelle’s was long, their ends grazing the ground.

Aub’s shoulders shook, her pale face glittering with tears. She fiercely clung to her sister as if by pulling her close she could somehow bring her back.

Ian’s hand lay on the small of her back, the pain on his face so stark I couldn’t bear to look at it. Garreth, Aubrey’s gardinel, stood beside them, his craggy face solemn, eyes hollow. His hand clenched and unclenched repeatedly by his side.

I exited, needing to breathe fresh air. No matter how far you run, the stench of death never really leaves.

I’d seen Aubrey glow with anger. I’d seen her pale with shock and worry, I’d seen her explode with fierce loyalty and burn with love.
 

But I’d never seen her cry.

I would’ve given anything to have never seen her cry.

An intense ache clamped down on my body as if a building had landed on my chest.

The Shadow has always made this personal.

I’d known the moment I saw her in that cafeteria.

There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that Merbais had been targeted because of Noelle. He’d hurt Aubrey to get to me.

So much death, so much pain, to make a single point.

Where are you?

On the left, a huge barn sat in front of the entrance to the woods. Almost two stories high, it eerily towered over the other buildings. The wood was worn, long strips of paint peeling off like tears.
 

“What’s that?” I asked a passing chevalier.

“Academy’s training center.”

The place looked like it should be condemned, not a facility for the next generation of chevaliers. Comparing it to Lumiere’s state of the art concrete and steel Training Center was like comparing my Datsun to Aubrey’s Lexus.

I slid open the door and entered. Moonlight spilled through the windows, bathing the insides in a soft glow.
 

Bars and ropes hung from the ceiling. A balance beam took up one corner of the room. A few old mats lined the center, enough to handle a dozen students at a time. One of the stalls used to hold horses had been converted into a makeshift weight room.
 

The equipment was decent, but outdated. Certainly not enough to support the level of training necessary for producing top tier chevaliers.
 

“What a dump.” Julian joined me, his sharp eyes quickly assessing the space. “It’s like parkour meet small town horror ala Stephen King.”

“This is what you were talking about.”

“I knew about it because of Gabe,” he said. “He told me a few of his ideas for updating chevalier training programs. He and Marcella were trying to convince the Council but were having a difficult time.”

“Why?”

“Because the Council only cares about what they see in front of them,” he said bluntly. “Do you think the Rosamunds or Blanchards give a shit about what happens in Merbais? They want the best in Haverleau because that’s where they live. They have no desire to fund or advocate change unless it supports their self-interests.”

“You could do it.” I turned to him. “You’re Head Chevalier. I’ll give you every support you need to —“

“Things won’t change.” Julian hopped up and sat on the balance beam. “Sometimes, you have to accept that things are the way they are.”

Aubrey’s stricken expression flashed before me. “I can’t do that.”

“Because you still believe in the impossible. Like ending this war.”

And he didn’t. “You don’t believe I’m the
sondaleur
. You don’t think I can end this.”

“It has nothing to do with you. You could be the most over-qualified brilliant warrior on the planet and I still wouldn’t believe you’re the
sondaleur
.”

“Why?”

“Because that prophecy is a pipe-dream. It’s Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy. It’s what they sell to convince us of the moral superiority of our actions, the lie of a different future. The
sondaleur
doesn’t exist. One person can’t stop the tide of crap that’s fueled this war for so long.”

He jumped down. “The others are meeting up at the town center. You might want to check-in before Cam decides to kick Bernard’s ass.”

He left, his words lingering in the night air with the stench of death and blood.

By the time I returned to the town center, the others had gathered in the gazebo.
 

“Anything?”

Alex’s face was pale. “Not unless you count the number of ways a person can die.”

“This is unbelievable.” Cam said grimly. “Where the hell was security?”

Richard scowled. “We did the best we could under the circumstances.“

“Yeah and look where that left you,” Ethan muttered.

Bernard stiffened. “It’s easy to point blame after something has happened —“

“Enough.” Bickering wasn’t going to solve anything. “We need to find what he left.”

Blaise leaned back and rested his hands on the railing. “Why are you so sure there’s something to find?”

Find me, Kendra.

“He left something,” I said firmly. “He wants me to find him. He want to show me he’s the one behind this.”

His narcissism wouldn’t let him do otherwise.
 

“Well, I personally have been through this square at least fifty times,” Bernard crossed his arms. “And I can assure you there is nothing —“

“There’s something,” I snapped. “We just haven’t found it yet.”

It was a matter of location. I knew it was here in Merbais, just not where.