Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (131 page)

I shook my head. “She had him raise the rocks so she could

make as much impact as possible.” I totally agreed with Zoe and Steph— she was showing off and it did seem homicidal.

I wondered if it was Hiro or Josephine who had decided to let

the explosions’ residue come down on us, but didn’t deliberate for long. Hiro would have been under orders.

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Steph cast a suspicious look my way. “And since everyone else

knew this stuff, I guess it was mostly for your benefit, Vi. The question is, why?”

I already knew the answer. It was a warning.

————

I was relieved to be back on the boat and rushed to take my same position at the bow, facing into the wind. There was little I could do on the volcanic island, and being stuck over there had brought my old escape instincts to the surface.

Despite Kaitlin and Samuel’s efforts, when we disembarked at the marina, we had to push through dozens of tourists demanding to

know why they were not allowed to visit the famous landmark, especially angry now they’d seen us sail in from that very place. We just put our heads down and walked through, spotting Salvatore waiting for us halfway up the steep path that would take us back into town.

I had sensed exiles as soon as my feet hit land.

So many people surrounding us made me nervous. Looking at

all the faces, knowing I could sense the exiles but not being able to pick them out clearly was disconcerting.

“Steph!” I yelled. She was hurrying ahead, trying to get to

Salvatore, and didn’t hear me over the people traffic.

“Violet?” a voice came from behind.

I closed my eyes briefly, partly in dread and partly in pleasure, soaking up his presence— sun first, then melting honey. Of course, Lincoln didn’t need to hear me to know something was wrong— he

would have felt the spike in my anxiety.

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He came up beside me. “What is it?”

I shook my head to tell him now was not the time to discuss it.

“Back at the hotel.”

He nodded and I was grateful he didn’t push. “How about I

walk with Steph?” he suggested, giving me a look of understanding that made me want to cry. My recent anger with him slipped away.

He didn’t need me to explain I was worried for her safety here; he didn’t need to ask for answers. He just knew, knew me.

Unable to manage words, our eyes lingered on each other,

sending my heartbeat into overdrive before he broke contact and hurried on to catch up with Steph. He whispered something in her ear that made her look back at me and make a show of linking her arm through Lincoln’s.

I lagged, staying where I could keep a good watch on things.

I thought I was the only one who had fallen so far behind until Josephine appeared by my side as if she’d always been there. How she managed that I had no idea.

“Violet, is there anything you would like to discuss with me?”

I looked straight ahead. “Nothing I can think of.”

“I expected you to say something about last night,” she said, but that wasn’t what she was really asking.

“I heard enough last night. You had a job to do. You did it.

Right?” I glanced at her and then looked ahead again. Her lips

were curled.

“I’m glad you understand. It gives me hope that we might be

able to get along after all.”

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No
chance
of
that.

I forced a tight smile.

“Given your abilities, I assume you are aware of the increased

presence of exiles?”

I nodded, wondering what her sense was.

“When did you plan on alerting us to this?”

I fought the urge to put distance between us and held my steady pace. “I only just felt them. I might’ve been able to sense them earlier, but I wasn’t myself this morning,” I said, unable to resist the dig.

She stopped walking, taking hold of my upper arm as she did.

I froze, doing nothing but staring at the hand restraining me.

Lincoln had grabbed me in the same way this morning; he’d been

rough even, but Josephine’s hold was different. Cold, rigid fingers and sharp nails dug into my skin, eager to break the surface. Yeah, she wanted to…badly.

“I am not one of your devoted recruits, Violet. I have no intention of bringing my people into this mess you have created and

risking their lives simply to save yours. I am fully aware that the lost opportunities to eliminate Phoenix are predominantly due to efforts to protect you. I won’t suffer such hesitation for my people.” She squeezed my arm, assuring me of her strength. “If I find out at any stage that you are lying to me, I will have you detained and removed from the island.”

Her fingers tightened, nails now cutting into my skin, and she

pulled me close to herself, adding, “
And
from Lincoln.”

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I clamped my jaw shut and fisted my hand. I kept my head

down but lifted narrowed eyes to meet hers. “Are you finished?”

“Quite,” she said, holding my arm for another few seconds

before letting go and proceeding up the path before me. Mia and Hiro quickly appeared by her side.

I don’t know how long I stood there, people moving around

me as I watched Josephine hike back up to the hotel. She had just drawn the lines and I was now more certain than ever— I couldn’t risk involving anyone else in my plans.

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chapter
twenty- nine

“Thus saith the Lord God; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.”
eZekIeL 7:5

Dapper came to our room that afternoon. He’d been confi ned to

the hotel with Onyx, and he and Steph had just come back from

reporting their latest opinions on the Scripture to Josephine and Lincoln. I left them to the braniac business, locking myself away in the bathroom for a shower, where I noticed Josephine had been successful in her mission, crescent moon– shaped cuts from her

nails remaining as evidence on my arm.

I considered trying to cover them up, but I’d spent enough time trying to conceal such things in the past and I was damned if I was going to protect her. When I emerged from the bathroom in cargos and a black tank top, Onyx was sauntering into our room, carrying a bottle and two glasses. Dapper didn’t even look up as he poured them each a drink. As odd as their weirdly synced, alcohol- fueled friendship— which I suspected might be a little more— seemed, it Emblaze.indd 329

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was becoming comfortable. Onyx had changed. Not only did he

show fewer signs of his previous insanity, but it was also becoming apparent that he wasn’t as immune to us as he would have us believe.

Onyx and Dapper, unlikely a pair as they were, had unwittingly

become my allies. I trusted them more than some of the Grigori.

I leaned on the bathroom doorframe, drying my hair with a towel.

“You’re looking better,” Dapper commented.

“On top of the world,” I replied sarcastically. “What’s the latest?”

“Shouldn’t we be asking you that?” he countered, a lilt in his voice.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, that explained why no one had been very chatty with me when they first got in. “Josephine told you the exiles are here,” I deduced.

“And that you knew it,” Steph added, voicing her disappoint-

ment. “That’s why you sent Lincoln to walk me back to the hotel.

I don’t need a bodyguard, you know.”

I decided to ignore her comment— nothing I said would make

it better while she was in a mood.

“Has anyone seen them yet?” I asked casually.

“Nah,” Dapper said. “They’re being sneaky. Staying out of almost everyone’s range. But she assumes they’re all here, Phoenix included.” The way he said it, he was clearly looking for my reaction, which I ensured remained completely neutral. “Probably,” I hedged. “So where are we with the Scripture?”

Dapper put several pieces of paper down on the coffee table

and then put on his glasses. “We have the majority worked out.

The first prophecy is fairly clear. ‘Awaken Tartarus and blanket 330

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day, to hide their eyes and Heaven’s ray’ basically means just that; when the volcano erupts, it will bring the attention of Tartarus and deliver a cloud of ash that will cover the sky. ‘Ash will fall as fire will rain’ requires no real imagination. It’s the next line we’re stumbling over. ‘Delivering to one’ is very general. Perhaps it means the one who opens the gates or is somehow responsible for them.

In short, we don’t know. The rest…well, flames, death, water, and resurrection— that’s all to be expected, given the ultimate goal.”

“And the second one?” I asked, tucking a strand of hair behind

my ear. This might be my last chance to absorb this information.

“Aren’t we keen?” Onyx quipped, as I noticed Steph watching

me pensively.

Dapper picked up the next piece of paper. “The first two lines

hold no surprise. It was the location. The next part is the instructions. Our best guess is that this is a description of sacrifices—

three to water and three to fire— but it also has requirements for whom should perform those sacrifices and clearly describes more than one person.”

“So who, then?”

Dapper shook his head, frustrated.

“We don’t know,” Steph said, taking over and keeping it simple.

“We all have different theories— powers, angelic ranks. But the thing that really stumps us is the ‘Three at the hand of the heart of man.’”

“Why?”

“Because exiles are not men. Not truly. Humans are.”

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When none of us said anything, Dapper resumed speaking.

“The rest seems to relate to Phoenix’s direct role as ‘the admirer.’

Basically, if he ensures the sacrifices, one will be delivered from Hell. With an offering of pain, the gates will open, and such an offering at Phoenix’s hand— most likely his own blood— will guarantee his desire is fulfilled.”

Because otherwise, any one entity from Hell could be released—

Phoenix and his stated desire was the key to ensuring it would

be Lilith.

“What about the water line?” I leaned over his shoulder. “‘And

water stands high to cradle the course,’” I read.

“Water is always the path between one world and another. It

resembles the crossover. It could be as simple as that,” Dapper said, but there was something else, a tone in his voice that implied he had another theory he wasn’t sharing.

“What about the symbols?” Onyx asked.

“Actually, it was Josephine and the Conductors who figured that out. They think they’re coordinates, using the constellations with Nea Kameni as the anchor. They’ve worked out that it marks six

points around the volcano’s center.”

“If you’re about to say it maps out a star, I think I’ll laugh,” I said, giving up on drying my hair and tying it up in a ponytail.

“No. But maybe just as odd,” Steph said. She opened her note-

book to a blank page and passed it to me with a pencil.

“Draw a circle.” She waited.

I sat beside her and did as she asked.

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She nodded. “That’s the volcano. Now, inside it, put a dot here, here, and here. Then, outside the circle, put a dot here, here, and here,” she continued, pointing to each marker.

“Okay…” I stared at my spotty creation. “I don’t get it.”

“Join the dots with straight lines, first inside, then outside.” I stared at what was a large inverted triangle surrounding the

circle and a much smaller upright triangle in its center.

“Why does that look so familiar?” I asked, trying to work out

where I’d seen something similar.

“Because circle within triangle,” Onyx said, who’d been

watching as I drew the symbol. He snatched the pencil from my

hand, flipped the drawing upside down, and added streaks running from the edge of the circle out to the larger triangle. “
That
is the Eye of Providence.”

“Huh?”

Steph smiled. “The All- seeing Eye.”

“Oh. Right.” I looked around, confused. “Isn’t that meant to

be good?”

“Heaven be damned, girl!” Onyx said, standing up hastily and

spilling some of his drink. “Haven’t you learned anything yet?

Nothing is simply good or evil. If all your human fantasies were true,
I’d
be good!”

I just blinked at him. That put things in perspective.