Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (140 page)

of sight.

————

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Jessica shirvington

I didn’t need to lift Lincoln’s T- shirt to know all my wounds were healed. My angel maker had just interfered. Again.

I looked up to the peak of the volcano, wondering why my angel

maker had taken the time to make such a pointed stop.

What
is
up
there?

Something caught my eye behind the still- billowing smoke—

something glinting in the sun. Silver. No, surely not…No one

would go up there. I squinted again until the smoke cleared

enough for me to be sure: I was staring at a figure, blackened by soot and ash, and as I watched, it fell to the ground at the edge of the crater.

I was moving before I realized, heading up toward a place I never wanted to go again. My feet kept slipping into patches of lava, but I kept going. Someone was up there.

“Violet!” I heard Lincoln yell, but I didn’t stop. I had to get to the top; I had to see. A strange energy propelled me forward— not just my own, but also my angel maker’s. He wanted me to go there, demanded it.

I picked up my pace, stumbling every few steps.

“Violet! Wait! It’s not safe!” Lincoln shouted.

He was so fast, he soon caught up to me, but he stayed behind

a few steps, cautious. Maybe he thought I was going to finish what I had started earlier.

“I’m okay,” I said, not stopping. “I saw something up there.”

“Violet, no one has gone up there; it’s too unstable. We have to go back down. You’re hurt— we need to heal you.”

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I stopped and lifted the back of his T- shirt, exposing my flesh.

He gasped.

“How?” he asked, taking in the fact that all of my injuries

had gone.

“My angel maker.”

“That’s…that’s not possible.”

I held my hands out. “And yet…Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation.

“Then understand that I need to be up there.”

He wanted to argue, to get me to safety, but instead he sighed

and nodded.

When we reached the top, I walked quickly around the crater

to the place I thought the person had been. At first, I couldn’t see anything and started to doubt myself, but then, just visible against the smoldering ground, I saw the silver glinting in the sunlight that had caught my eye from below. I ran over, dropping to my knees.

It was a woman, clothed only in a thick layer of ash and with

dark hair so long, it covered her. On her right wrist, something silver. I picked up her limp arm. She barely moaned, but it was enough to know she was still alive.

Just.

I rubbed my fingers over her bracelet.

Lincoln dropped to his knees beside me, pushing the hair back

from the woman’s face. “She’s not an exile. She feels like…Can you sense her?” he asked, starting to wipe some of the ash from her face.

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“She’s Grigori,” I said, feeling distant, fighting the woozy sensation that was building inside me.

One
wristband.

“Where could she have come from?” Lincoln asked, baffled.

“She came from the volcano,” I said, knowing I was right.

Lincoln paused, partly at my answer and partly because he’d

wiped away enough ash from her face to see her. “She looks…

Violet, she looks like you.”

Griffin chose that moment to stumble over to us. “Heard you’d

decided to venture up here again.” He was puffing— obviously he’d run the whole way, worried we were in trouble.

“What? Were you feeling nostalgic?” he joked uneasily. Then he

saw the woman. “Oh, who’s this?” He crouched down beside us.

Then he saw the wristband, took another look at the figure before him, then turned to me, questioningly.

I sat back on my heels in total disbelief.

“She’s my mother.”

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chapter
thirty- seven

“Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death
and doom.”

DeuTerONOMY 30:15

Lincoln carried the woman down the volcano, Griffi n and I

following, dazed.

My
mother.

“Did anything else happen when you were with Phoenix?”

Griffi n asked.

I thought back. “No, no…I don’t know. He kept me asleep through most of it. I remember being on the boat, we fought, then he made me sacrifi ce the exiles and knocked me out. I woke up on the volcano.” But then I realized I didn’t
just
wake up. “Wait! Th ere’s one thing. I had a dream and my angel maker was there. I…I asked

him to help us and…” I shook my head. “He took my dagger

and wiped my blood on it.” I looked up at Griffi n, who was also fi guring it out. “Th en he told me he had helped us.”

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“The same dagger Phoenix threw into the volcano?”

I nodded.

“Phoenix wasn’t the only one who made an offering. Your blood

was on that blade too.”

I looked at the woman in Lincoln’s arms.

Have
I
done
this? Brought her here?

“But I…The prophecy said it could only deliver one.”

“Only one to the person with terrible desire, but maybe this was something else?”

I shivered— a sudden chill running through me— and noticed

that I wasn’t the only one feeling it. Everyone seemed to have sensed something and we all looked toward the headlands of Santorini.

From such a distance, the only things visible were two figures.

One had long hair, almost to the ground, that was blowing wildly in the breeze. Orange. No— gold. Hair of gold, just like Phoenix had hair of opal.

The woman, my mother, stirred in Lincoln’s arms. I froze,

watching as her eyes opened. They were not like mine. I had

Dad’s eyes. Hers were electric blue and striking. She looked

in the same direction we all had, but now my eyes were fixed

on her.

“Lilith,” she whispered before passing out again.

“God help us,” Griffin said from my other side.

I started walking down the slope toward Steph.

“Don’t you want to go with your mother?” Griffin called

behind me.

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I stopped and looked back at them. “Why would I want to

do that?”

I carried on until I reached Steph, who pulled me onto her boat, where I buried my head in her shoulder and cried all the way back to Santorini.

I waited for the numbness to set in, but as everyone returned to the hotel, all I felt was anger.

Steph helped me to our room with Salvatore, refusing to let me

out of her sight. She had already packed our things, but we needed to shower and change. The Academy had ordered us all off the

island. Apparently, Irin had started to cause problems, threatening to attack us if we were not gone by midnight, which gave us only about two hours. Sure, we could use our forces to overwhelm him, but there would be inevitable repercussions that no one wanted to consider right now.

I started to wash away the dried blood and ash. Thanks to my

angel maker, underneath, I appeared unharmed, a thought that

made me laugh and cry at the same time. Some things could not

be changed, though. I was desperately weak. The blood loss would affect me for days, and I looked gaunt.

I got out of the shower and studied myself in the mirror,

wondering if it would ever end— the fighting, the pain, the sacrifice.

How
could
my
angel
maker
punish
me
by
sending
her
back? The person
she cared so little about that she abandoned me the moment I was born.

And what of all the rest of it? What about the Academy? I had no idea what they planned to do with me. Josephine had proved what 411

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she’d said at the beginning was true— I no longer had any doubt she wanted to defeat exiles. She hadn’t been corrupted like Magda, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t dangerous, that she wouldn’t take me down in a heartbeat.

And as for my soul…Since waking up in Phoenix’s arms, it had

quieted. I had been near Lincoln since, but I hadn’t felt the same physical pain at being close to him. Maybe my weakened physical state had also lessened my soul’s ability to fight me. Whatever it was, I was grateful for the reprieve.

There was a polite knock on the door.

“Sweetie, Lincoln’s here,” Steph said. I knew she’d tell him to go away if I asked.

“Okay,” I said, throwing on a pair of jeans and a white V- neck T- shirt. Steph went straight into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, turning on the shower to give us privacy.

I sat on the edge of my bed, trying not to look like I needed to.

Lincoln sat down opposite.

“Salvatore went to get his things,” he said.

I nodded.

“Umm…Everyone is loading up the cars downstairs. Griffin has

spoken with Josephine, and for now, the Academy has agreed to

you staying under Griffin’s guidance.”

I nodded again. I heard the “for now” but at least that meant I could go home.

“She threatened to split us up,” I said, trying to hold down my anger at the world.

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Lincoln was silent for a moment, then answered, “I’ll never let that happen.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I had been scared that he might agree with the idea.

He stood up, came over to me, and put a hand on my shoulder.

“She’s okay. They’ve cleaned her up, and she’s in and out of

consciousness, but they expect her to be fully awake soon.”

I nodded.

“Do you want to see her?”

I shook my head, keeping my eyes focused on the carpet.

“Okay,” he said, before giving my shoulder a squeeze. “I’ve got to get to the airport. Josephine insisted I have the pleasure of seeing off the Rogue since I brought them here. But I’ll see you there.” I didn’t look up, didn’t say anything, just nodded. It was all I could muster.

————

I took a seat up front, as far away from Josephine as I could get.

Apparently, our large number meant planes were hard to come by, and so she had offered to let us use the Academy jet, which meant she was escorting us home.

Great. I would rather have swam.

When we got out of the taxis, Spence was waiting for us. I felt like such an invalid, which only fed my anger. I was glad Spence took over, though. I felt like he understood.

Onyx and Dapper were sitting together, already with drinks in

hand. Dapper smiled when he saw me; Onyx raised his glass.

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Steph and Salvatore settled into the seats behind me, and Spence sat across the aisle, leaving me room to spread out.

Josephine had her crew around her, though I noticed they

were slumped now, not worrying so much about staying at full

attention— even Hiro and Mia didn’t seem to care, though I

suspected they would act at a moment’s notice if one of us tried to jump Josephine.

I gave Morgan and Max, my favorites of her crew, a nod and

felt the comfort of my people as they piled in behind me, each

one stopping briefly to place a hand on my shoulder. I didn’t turn around, afraid they would see the tears welling.

This
is
my
family.

Even if I did miss Dad desperately, the thought made things

a little easier. Until, that is, I heard the bathroom door open and turned in time to see Max leap to his feet and help
her
walk to a seat behind Josephine.

My mother didn’t even spare me a glance, not that I’d waited

before ducking into my seat.

Why
the
hell
is
she
on
our
plane?

I felt the panic rising in my throat. My knees bounced up and

down. I couldn’t do this, be trapped here with her. My eyes darted around and fixed on the still- open door. I was so close.

Five
steps
and
I’ll be out.

If
I could make five steps on my own without passing out. I bit down on my lip and considered my options. Spence would