Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (117 page)

“Forget it,” Dapper said, now wiping down the table.

“Oh, Dapper,
really
? Tell me you wouldn’t like a large glass of something mind- numbing after discovering that Hell is about to play peekaboo via the most destructive volcano on the planet?”

Dapper kept wiping the table.

“Keys!” Onyx bellowed.

Sighing, Dapper tossed them through the air. Onyx caught

them in one and had the cage open in moments.

Steph got up and started toward the door.

“Where are you going?” I asked, standing too.

“School. I’ll get there for the last couple of classes, pick up the 202

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work for the next week or two, just in case, and tell them I’m going on one of Dad’s business trips. I’ll get your work too— unless, of course, you want to come with me.”

I shrugged.

“Didn’t think so.” She hugged me tighter than usual. “I’ll be

outside your place at eight in a taxi.”

I wanted to argue, to try and convince her to stay, but it was

useless. “Okay,” I sighed.

She squeezed me one more time and then took off via Spence.

Whatever she said to him made him fall into hysterics.

Must
have
offered
to
get
his
schoolwork
too.

I was vaguely aware of people starting to file out, but I sat back down at the table. I couldn’t move yet.

How
can
Phoenix
do
this?

I’d seen a side to him that I was sure could never be capable of what he was now doing.

Is
there
any
part
of
him
that
feels
anything
anymore? Maybe if I
try
to
speak
to
him, find a way to reach him…

“Whatever you’re thinking, stop.”

I jolted from my mind- spiral and looked up. Lincoln was

standing on the opposite side of the table. From the look on his face, he’d been watching me for a while and I’d been so lost in thought, I hadn’t even felt him move closer

“This is all because of me. If I hadn’t become involved with

him in the first place…This is all because I couldn’t love him.” Something painful rippled over Lincoln’s face and his hands fisted 203

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as if he needed to restrain them— as if he wanted to reach out to me. I felt the surge of his power, the flow of honey lifting from him and enveloping me.

Why
is
he
using
his
power
around
me?

“The best thing we can do is stop him, but, Vi…I think you

should consider not coming.”

“Are you
deficient
? You think I’m going to let everyone else go there, even
Steph
, to fight the battle that’s my fault?” I shook my head in disbelief. Even knowing what was ahead—

that I would have to deal with Dad first— not going was absolutely
not
an option.

“If you think that’s ever going to happen, you don’t know me

at all.”

“I don’t think it’s
going
to happen. But I do think you should consider it.”

I stood up and laid my hands flat on the table to deliver him a fierce stare. “Well, it’s been considered.”

I grabbed my bag and stormed out before Lincoln had a chance

to say another word.

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chapter
eighteen

“Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even
in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light
which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint
light wherever it may lead.”

CarL VON CLauseWITZ

It was a bleak, drizzly day and the sun didn’t seem to be off ering any help. I shoved my hands into my coat pockets as I started to walk away. I didn’t want to stop, just in case Lincoln decided to follow me. It was getting harder all the time. Just being around him caused reactions I couldn’t control. From the moment I’d sat down in Hades this morning, something had twisted, wringing

me from the inside out, and it had burned like dry ice. Now that I was away from him— all I felt was the lonely, trembling chill left behind.

I pulled my coat tightly around my waist and tugged on my

beanie. I was so caught up in wondering how we were going to

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survive this trip— both the battle and the nearness— that I didn’t notice Onyx until I was almost on top of him.

I stopped in my tracks. He didn’t activate my senses in the same way as other exiles or cause that familiar buzz I felt when other Grigori were nearby. He felt like a memory, invoking the instinct to look over my shoulder— but more.

“What do you want?”

He pulled out from the shadows of the back doorway to Hades.

“My, my, we’re touchy. I told you we needed to talk.”

“What now?”

“Santorini is a small island— not like the city. It’s not like

anywhere else.”

“What does that mean?”

He shrugged. “You’ll soon find out.”

“Forget it, I’m not interested in playing your games,” I said,

starting to walk away, still feeling empty and cold.

“You have to decide!” he called after me.

I stopped and turned back to him. The look on his face was

almost genuine.

“The only person who will ever get close enough to him to make

a strike is you. Lincoln has the capability, but we both know he will always hesitate…” His confident look morphed into one of fear.

“She is…Trust me, Lilith is the epitome of evil. She will annihilate everything and everyone in her path. She was always demented,

but after the time she has been…
where
she’s been…she will have no intention other than destruction.”

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“As opposed to you!” I sniped.

“Oh, believe me, Rainbow— I had vision, right or wrong. But

anything I have ever done will be a mere breeze in comparison to the hurricane she will unleash.”

My breath was smoky in the cold air as it left my shaking body.

“What are you saying?”

“She will be impossible to stop, possibly immune to our blades.

The only chance we have is to kill Phoenix before he opens the

gates and you’re the only one who can do it.”

Once
again— great to be special.

“Why are you telling me this?” I snapped.

“Because…no one else is going to.”

I bit my lip, absorbing his words, which seemed to provoke a

small smile, or maybe it was a grimace, from him. He turned and walked into Hades, locking the door behind him.

I don’t know how long I stood there, but it was long enough for the coldness in my body to turn to numbness.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t thought it myself— when Phoenix had

taken Steph, I had had to accept it might be my only option. But Onyx, with his newfound need for self- preservation, was the first to say it aloud and somehow that made it different, more real.

The truth was— I didn’t want to die.

But
that
doesn’t mean I won’t.

No wonder Lincoln wanted me to stay behind
.

————

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expected Dad home right after school hours and thought we’d have time. But Steph was due to be outside in less than half an hour, and I was still waiting. I had no idea how we were going to get through this conversation. There would be no elaborate manipulation this time; there was no way to make this easier. I couldn’t just lie.

My duffle bag was packed and by the door, my backpack beside

me on the couch. I flipped through its contents once again. I’d done as Griffin had instructed and replaced all of my forms of identification with the ones he had given me. My wallet was now filled with a membership to a library I didn’t recognize, a new student card, driver’s license, and passport— all of which identified me as Violet Eden, age twenty- one.

When I tried, I could pass for nineteen, maybe twenty, but

twenty- one was a push. I guess the Academy figured such precautions would make things easier for everyone.

I pulled out my mother’s wooden box and tried to ignore the

wave of senses that always overcame me when I touched it. I opened the now- familiar letter she had written to me seventeen years ago and wondered if I would ever be able to think of her without resentment.

Unlikely.

I picked up her wristband and felt the senses build within me

like an orchestra before I dropped it again. No one knew what had happened to the other one, but I could tell Rudyard had had his suspicions before he’d…I didn’t like touching the leather; it always felt wrong. Twisted. Like it was generating some kind of energy of its own, even now, all these years after she’d died.

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The door clicked open and Dad walked in. Finally. He was

saying good- bye to someone on his phone. From the smile in his tone, I was willing to bet it was Caroline.

I wondered if it was planned or just fortuitous that he had her now that it looked like he might lose me. Not that he knew that yet. I scrunched my hand, digging my nails into my palm to stop myself from thinking about it. The idea of angels, both light and dark, messing with my dad was more than upsetting.

“Violet!” he yelled as soon as he was off the phone. He hadn’t

even made it into the living room, but I could see him standing by the door, looking at my bag.

He stormed into the room.

“What’s going on? And why weren’t you at school today?”

I wasn’t surprised the school had called— I’d made no attempt to cover up my nonattendance when I realized what was happening. I didn’t get up and I didn’t raise my voice. Instead, I looked at him, honesty in my eyes— and love.

“I have to go away for a few days. I’ve been waiting for you to get home so I could see you before I left.”

“And just where do you think you’re going?” he barked incredulously.

“Dad…” I stood up and wiped my hands up and down my

thighs anxiously. I didn’t want to hurt him like this. “I wish I could tell you everything but please trust me when I say I’m doing the right thing. I know you think I’m part of some cult or something— but I’m not. I’m a good person and I wouldn’t do this to you if I didn’t have to. Dad…” My throat tightened, but it was the 209

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only chance I had of helping him understand. “I’m doing what

Mom asked me to do.”

He stumbled back.

I glanced at my watch anxiously. “I don’t have much time. Mom

wasn’t…she wasn’t always honest with you, but I know she loved

you and that you loved her. I…I don’t want to lie to you like she did, so…I’m giving you this.” I held out the wooden box. “It’s time you read the letter she left me, and when I get home, I promise I’ll try and answer your questions…if you want me to.”

Dad didn’t take the box. Instead, he stood, immobilized, his

mouth open, eyes darting between mine and the box. “You have no right to speak about her like that,” he said in a low voice.

I smiled sadly. “Actually, I have more right than anyone.” I

walked to the door and opened it, realizing that trying to explain everything to him like this wasn’t going to work.

“You are not walking out that door!” Dad ordered, taking strides across the room to intercept me.

“This goes beyond you and me, Dad. I wish it didn’t. I wish I could just be your daughter and be who you want me to be, but I…It doesn’t matter what you say or what I want. One way or another, I’m going.” I reached down and picked up my bag, but Dad got there at the

same time, grabbing my wrist, desperately trying to force the bag free.

“Dad, stop!” I said, trying not to resist him. “Please,” I begged,

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

He didn’t let go, pulling harder, confusion at my ability to block his efforts showing in his strained expression.

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“Let go of this bag!” he roared.

I heard a car horn from the street. Steph was here and I had no more time.