Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (121 page)

“Linc,” I said, keeping my gaze on the scene outside the window.

“It’s okay.” I didn’t need to look at Josephine to know she was smiling, but Griffin had given me clear instructions not to go up against her. “As long as Lincoln can come with me and I’m not

expected to— ”

“Of course not,” she cut me off. “Lincoln will be with you the

entire time. I have already stipulated that in the arrangements.” I nodded.

“It’s already arranged?” Lincoln replied, his calm now wavering.

236

Emblaze.indd 236

1/4/13 4:14 PM

Emblaze

“Yes, I put everything in place as soon as I knew our destination.

I just didn’t know who we were going to send— until I saw how

beautiful Violet is.”

So, why am I so sure she doesn’t think I’m beautiful at all and that
she planned this whole thing before she ever laid eyes on me?

The taxi pulled up outside a white building that looked like

all the others we’d passed on the drive. We were much higher up now, though.

Did
someone
say…cliffs? Joy.

“Welcome to Fira,” Josephine said, getting out of the taxi.

Samuel and Kaitlin pulled up behind us and everyone else was

already waiting at the foot of a winding staircase. Onyx was sitting on top of his bag and looked utterly wasted as he fanned himself.

Samuel walked past us, pausing briefly to glance meaningfully at Lincoln, who gave one of his own glances in return.

“It is not a large hotel, and since we expect more Grigori to join us shortly, we have booked it out. I will have the main suite. You can work the rest out among yourselves, though I require my staff to be in the rooms surrounding my own, for practicality’s sake.” She gave a tight smile and then started for the stairs, leaving her bags for her ninjas.

Steph came up to me, a spring in her step and a childish smile

on her face. “Are we sharing?”

“Sure, but maybe you should hang out with Sall and the others

until I come and get you. I have to go out and I don’t want you on your own here.”

237

Emblaze.indd 237

1/4/13 4:14 PM

Jessica shirvington

Steph’s smile vanished. I knew she would freak if I told her what Josephine had asked and that she wouldn’t refrain from giving the Vice a piece of her mind. I patted her on the shoulder and started walking up the stairs so I didn’t have to look at her while I lied.

“Don’t worry, Steph. Just recon. I’ll be with Lincoln the whole time.”

“Really?” she responded suspiciously.

“Absolutely.”

“But Josephine said no one was allowed to leave the hotel.”

“Yeah, I know, but she asked us to make a delivery or some-

thing. No drama. It will probably only take an hour or so.”

“Okay then. I guess I’ll drop my bags in our room and catch up

with the others. I wanted to get their take on the prophecies anyway.

I think there’s more to those symbols than just the sacrifices.” I looked over my shoulder at her, grateful that the light was only dim, and flashed a big, fake smile. “Great idea. I’ll find you after.” Then she ran up a couple of steps. “Vi, can you believe he’s

back? And he looks so incredible! I don’t know how, but it’s like his hotness level has doubled!”

My smile became more genuine, and when we reached the

top of the staircase, I put an arm around her. “I’m really glad you’re happy.”

“You will be too, you know. It might not be right away, but I

know you will. Some things are just written in the stars,” she said, looking up at the twinkling sky, drunk on love.

I hitched my bag higher on my shoulder and opened the hotel

door for her. “Even the stars can’t change
some
things, Steph.” 238

Emblaze.indd 238

1/4/13 4:14 PM

chapter
twenty- one

“Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.”

raLPH WaLDO eMersON

Th e Academy had been around for a long time. Among other

things, the organization clearly had money. No doubt it didn’t hurt that we were traveling with prima donna Josephine. I imagined

she wouldn’t do anything on a shabby- chic scale. With no Grigori permanently inhabiting Santorini, there was no safe- house hotel—

like there was in Jordan— for us to use.

Th e hotel where we were staying assumed an elevated— and

therefore defensive— position above Fira, the main town on the

island. It looked down over hundreds of white buildings, the only color besides a sporadic blue or golden- domed rooftop, their architecture following the natural curves of the landscape. I tried not to look for long, tried not to think about Dad. But it was hard not to be mesmerized, the town so startling above the water.

My attention drifted beyond the immediate, out to the night sea Emblaze.indd 239

1/4/13 4:14 PM

Jessica shirvington

and the volcanic crater. It looked so harmless, a tiny little island, nothing lighting it up, no towering peak giving it strength— it seemed completely, deceptively, lifeless.

Steph had taken off already, and I had an hour until Lincoln and I were due to meet downstairs. I stared at my phone wondering if I should turn it on and call Dad before putting it away in my bedside drawer. Then I collapsed on my bed with no intention of moving

for the next fifty- five minutes.

I had just kicked my shoes off when someone started knocking

on my door.

“Go away!” I called out, assuming it was Spence or one of

the others.

“Josephine sent me,” a girl’s voice called back to me.

I sighed and stared at the ceiling before rolling off the bed.

I really needed sleep. I schlepped over to the door, and when I opened it, Morgan stood there with a large, black box resting

in her outstretched arms and the briefcase Josephine had shown

us earlier.

She smiled courteously then pushed past me, carefully placing

the box on the bed and the briefcase beside it.

She turned to look at me and screwed up her face. “You do

realize you have less than an hour to get ready?”

I looked down at my outfit. I looked pretty average in my jeans and tank top and I still had my baggy sweater tied around my

waist. After however many hours it had been since my last shower, even I didn’t welcome the armpit test.

240

Emblaze.indd 240

1/4/13 4:14 PM

Emblaze

Morgan shook her head, belying her blank expression, breaking

into a quirky smile that made me wonder if the ninjas were really that bad.

“Josephine sent a dress and shoes for you.” She bit her lip. “You’d better get in the shower while I sort out your clothes and makeup.

Where is everything?”

She almost fell over in horror when I showed her what I’d

brought cosmetics- wise. I don’t know why she was surprised. I

hadn’t planned on getting dressed up. Luckily for Morgan, Steph’s bag contained a veritable “what’s what” of beauty essentials. I couldn’t help but laugh and relax. I’d had Morgan pegged as an

emotionless go- fetcher, but this girl was more like Warrior Barbie.

I did as I was told, too tired to argue, and had a quick shower, following instructions not to get my hair wet, since we didn’t have enough time to start from scratch.

When I emerged from the bathroom cocooned in the snugly,

white hotel robe, which only made me want to sleep even more, I found that Morgan had transformed my room into a beauty salon.

All of Steph’s cosmetics were laid out in some kind of color- and-type sequence, with brushes that she must have found in Steph’s bags too, straightening irons, nail polish, and, hanging from the open wardrobe, a dress that made me first gasp and second lunge for my dagger.

Morgan shot up in the air, hands out defensively. “What’s the

matter with you? Haven’t you ever had your makeup done before?” she asked, sounding like I’d actually hurt her feelings.

241

Emblaze.indd 241

1/4/13 4:14 PM

Jessica shirvington

“Where did that come from?” I demanded, jabbing the point

of my dagger toward the dress and then back to her. “Answer

me, now!”

“Okay, relax! It was loaded on the plane when you boarded;

Josephine ordered it online. She said, I don’t know…she said it was perfect. And can I just say, if you don’t like it, you don’t need to attack me over it! I’m not even armed!”

I looked at Morgan, standing opposite me in a defensive posi-

tion holding a tube of lip gloss. If she had done this on purpose, there was no way she would have come in unarmed. She looked

like she had been caught completely off guard and I instantly felt bad for her.

I threw my dagger onto the bed. “Were you really planning on

fighting back with lip gloss?” I asked, letting a smile spread across my face.

Morgan looked down, aware of her pose for the first time,

then back at me, still unsure, but realizing where I’d thrown my dagger— closer to her than me— she relaxed and smiled back.

“Remind me never to go dress shopping with you,” she said,

walking toward the most divine gown I’d ever seen. “What’s wrong with it, anyway?”

I stepped up beside her and ran my fingers down the black silk.

“I…I’ve seen it before.” I didn’t want to tell her I’d seen it with Phoenix— that he’d offered to buy it for me. “I just…It caught me by surprise. I thought it might be someone playing a joke on me.” Morgan moved behind me and started yanking at my hair with

242

Emblaze.indd 242

1/4/13 4:14 PM

Emblaze

a brush. “I can promise you this much— there isn’t anything funny about tonight.”

I spun to face her. “What aren’t you telling me? Why am I

getting so dressed up?”

Morgan directed me to the designated makeup chair and started

slapping foundation on my cheeks. “Josephine knows what she’s

doing. I know she seems…unfriendly, but you’d be better off just doing what she says.”

She went to work on my eyes, and I had to close them. After a

while, accepting she wasn’t going to say any more, I decided to try and find out some more about the ninjas. “Are all the people at the Academy like you guys?” From what I’d seen of Spence, Zoe, and

Salvatore, Josephine’s uniformed Grigori were different.

“In what way?”

“All ninja- ish and guard- like.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Grigori are in high places all around the world; we have to be to access the exiles who get there too.”

“So that’s what you’re going to do after you leave the Academy?”

“Everyone takes a different major in final year. Max, my partner, chose Ghosting.” She shrugged, grabbing the mascara wand and

blotting it on some tissue. “It’s not really my thing, but Max really wanted to do it. Ghosts always get to work closely with Josephine and he thought it would help us get good placements.”

“So you
like
Josephine?” I asked carefully.

She smiled and I could see she really did resemble a Barbie doll, 243

Emblaze.indd 243

1/4/13 4:14 PM

Jessica shirvington

with her long blond hair and perfect white teeth. “No one
likes
Josephine. But then, that’s not her job.”

She turned my chair toward the mirror. I almost didn’t recog-

nize myself. It seemed like ages since I’d actually felt girly…and well, this was even more. The way she’d done my eyes, made the

corners so dark and smoky with the slightest glimmer of silver at the top was amazing. I looked like a woman. All of a sudden, I

couldn’t wait to see what the dress looked like on.

————

I hadn’t been out in public without my bracelets since I first received my markings. I felt exposed and was fiddling so much that Morgan had resorted to slapping me on the hands. Which hurt.

“Stay still,” she said. “It’s hard enough doing this in the

elevator, let alone with you twitching like you’re having some

kind of seizure.”

I tried to stop bouncing on the balls of my feet as she clipped the last piece of jewelry on, the necklace with four rows of teardrop diamonds, each one— Morgan told me about a hundred times— a

perfect three carats. I placed a flat palm across my collarbone, which was now home to seventy- two carats’ worth of diamonds.

I’m a walking Tiffany’s.

I looked down at the rest of my glistening ensemble in the

elevator mirror. Three rings on each hand that miraculously fit perfectly, apart from the one with the ruby that was a little loose.

Looping, diamond- studded earrings, a glittering bracelet on one wrist, and opposite, a platinum armband in the design of a snake 244

Emblaze.indd 244

1/4/13 4:14 PM

Emblaze

curling its way around my upper arm, encrusted with smaller