Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (97 page)

New York. In some ways, it seemed like only yesterday that we were all standing in Dapper’s apartment unraveling the Exile Scripture after I had “returned” the Exile Jude—or rather,
Judas
.

I smiled, trying to muster some compassion for Steph. I
was
happy for her and Sal, the Italian Grigori she’d fallen for. I just had trouble convincing myself of that sometimes.

“Are they getting much pressure for details about what happened in Jordan?” I asked, feeling guilty. Griffin had put a gag order on everyone who had been present in those caves when Phoenix made

his big revelation about me being the first Grigori to be created by the highest- ranking angel, the Sole. It is a fine line Griffin is treading, withholding the information until he is absolutely certain of it. Which is also why he’s made it very clear to me he doesn’t want to know anything I might know on the subject— like, for example, the time my angel maker visited my dreams and confirmed,

well, everything.

“I think the Assembly has given up on getting anything from

them. Sall said there are plenty of rumors going around anyway.” I shrugged. We’d expected that. As well as fellow Grigori, the

cave had been full of completely unhinged exiled angels. We were sure they would be spouting the news along with their intense

desires to be the one to kill me.

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“They’ll work it out,” I reassured, pushing the other thoughts

aside in an expert mental maneuver of compartmentalization. “Sall will find a way.”

She gave a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, he said Zoe was working on

something. It’s just…you know.”

“Yeah.” I swallowed, trying to hold it together.

Oh, I know.

A bag thudded heavily at my feet, and I turned around in time

to see Spence slide down the lockers and slump onto the ground.

“This school thing was a bad idea,” he groaned. “Eden, you

gotta do something, pull rank or something.”

“No can do, buddy,” I said, not really feeling sorry for him at all. Spence had been strongly urged by Griffin to finish his education if he intended to stay in this city. “And anyway, I hear you had a great time in PE,” I added, raising my eyebrows at the last. His second week at school and already Spence had been pushing the

boundaries of humanly possible sports.

He looked at me sheepishly. “You saw that, huh?”

“No, but everyone has been talking about it since lunch.

Apparently, you’re God’s gift to the basketball court.”

“Couldn’t you at least
try
to blend in?” Steph asked, snappish with him, I suspected, for other reasons.

Spence took pause, but then just slumped lower, letting his

hands flop to the ground. “I needed a release.”

Steph rolled her eyes at him and then said to me flatly, “He

flunked the pop quiz in chemistry.”

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Jessica shirvington

“And history,” Spence added. “And then I didn’t even get to

fight.” He shot me a glare.

He looked so glum, I couldn’t help but start to feel for him, but right at that moment, Lydia Skilton waltzed by with three of her plastic wannabes in tow. As she walked, her pink ballerina tutu— no joke—

seemed to ride up of its own accord as she licked her lips in movie slow motion and curled a few cutesy fingers in Spence’s direction.

“Bye, Spence. See you tomorrow.”

Spence sat up a little and quickly changed from slumped idiot

to laidback hottie as he threw a hand in the air to accompany his lazy smile.

“Bye, Lydia.” He watched her ass till the doors at the end of the hall closed behind her.

“I’m sorry, but before I go to the bathroom and throw up, I just have to know— did you actually just
wink
at Lydia Skilton?” Steph asked, as if she had just witnessed a truly horrific moment. I was quite sure my expression mirrored hers.

Spence slumped back down to the ground to his previous life’s-

beaten- me position and shrugged. “Girl’s hot.” Then, speaking

before Steph delivered a biting remark, he looked at me with an eager glint in his eye. “We out of here?”

I swallowed, relieved too, as I grabbed my training bag. “Yeah.” I shimmied out of my art smock, wiping my still- black hands

on it in the process, and pulled on a pair of black leggings under my uniform before taking off my school dress. I always kept a black tank top on underneath to make quick changes easy.

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“Training?” Steph asked.

I shrugged. It was no surprise. And anyway, training was the

best part of my day.

“Lincoln?” she added quickly, looking past me, down the hall.

She must have wanted to ask it for a while. She hadn’t raised the subject in weeks.

“No,” I said, trying to shut it down.

It didn’t mean I never saw Lincoln, but through some kind

of unspoken accord— aka avoidance— we had thought it would

be better this way. Until things got easier. I wasn’t sure if it was working for him.

“Oh,” she said, giving me a pitying look, which I hated.

I pulled on a long, black sweater and strapped my belt and

sheathed dagger around my waist. Steph watched intently,

knowing what I was doing but unable to see the dagger with her

only- human eyes. It still amazed— and irritated— her, the tricks the supernatural could play on her mind. Finally, I stuffed my bag into my locker in exchange for a baseball cap, which I slipped on with a sense of relief.

“It’s all good,” I said, throwing in a dash of fake cheer. “You want me to walk you to the library?” We’d taken copies of the Exile Scripture in the days after first discovering it and Steph had been working almost every day at the library, trying to decipher it. So far, not much. But she seemed to have more theories than Griffin, or the Academy for that matter.

“Actually, I’m going to Hades. The book selection in the library 25

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is running short and Dapper has some others he said I can look at, but you know what he’s like.” She rolled her eyes. “He won’t let me take them away with me.”

“Are you sure you’re okay going there?” I still worried about

Steph being a part of this world, and Hades was fast becoming

the hub of Grigori activity in this city. She knew things so many normal people would never know, and she was defenseless against the power that surrounded her.

Plus, Onyx— a once very formidable enemy who, although

now completely human, was by no means rehabilitated— was still

living there. It seemed that had now become some kind of perma-

nent arrangement.

“Yep. I think Samuel and Kaitlin are going to be there too,”

she said. Two other Grigori being there didn’t ease my concerns.

If anything, having Grigori escorting Steph only reinforced how essential she had become.

“Okay, well, we can catch the bus there together. We’re training in the park today,” I said, picking up my pace, eager to get moving.

“Finally!” Spence complained.

“Lovely,” Steph said when she spotted the rain spitting against the windows. “Better you than me, I guess,” she added, readying her Burberry- check umbrella. She gave me a devilish grin. “Then again, at least you get to hit Spence for the next hour or so.” She really
was
holding it against him that Salvatore couldn’t get back here but…she had a point. She smiled and gave me a totally-Steph nudge.

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A moment later: “I heard that,” Spence said, a few paces ahead.

I smiled back at Steph, and within moments, we’d linked arms

and were laughing. She always had a way of making things better.

She wasn’t just my best friend; she was my family.

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chapter
three

“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
OsCar WILDe

Th e rain had eased off by the time we reached the park, but there was still a persistent drizzle misting the cool air. As far as I was concerned, all- weather training was essential— Lincoln had taught me that early on. We didn’t get to pick what weather we fought in, so the same should be applicable to training.

Apart from Griffi n, the park— as usual— was people free.

“Hi,” I said to him, tossing my bag next to his under the large tree we used as a base. “You been here long?”

“Hey, Griff ,” Spence said with a big smile and a not- so- happy glance in my direction.

Yeah, I hadn’t mentioned we’d have company today. My bad.

Griffi n looked up from his stretch. “Not long. Warm up and

let’s get to it.”

Which was exactly what I wanted to hear. Spence’s eagerness,

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however, was fading. He didn’t share my all- weather views.

“I think you need to consider confining your art time to home.

We can’t risk involving innocents. Beth may not always be handy,” Griffin said as I pulled off my sweater and started to warm up.

“Probably,” I said, not offering to elaborate.

“Phoenix obviously has exiles near the school, waiting to try and sense you. It’s a wonder they don’t just storm the place, but for whatever reason, he seems to have restricted them to attacking you only when they are sure of your location. We can’t ignore that advantage.” He was right, of course. I bent down to my toes so I didn’t have to look at him. “It won’t happen again.”

I didn’t know why Phoenix kept sending exiles to fight me this

way. Other than consuming people’s time and annoying me, it did nothing for him and almost always resulted in him losing his forces.

I mean, protective barriers or not, Phoenix
knew
where I lived. He could have sent exiles after me easily, but none had ever entered my home. I knew part of it was his twisted sense of fighter ethics, but it was more than that. Tactically, none of us could work it out.

“Any contact I should know about?” Griffin asked, getting busi-

ness out of the way.

“Nope.” I kept stretching, hoping they’d both leave it. Griffin knew I wouldn’t hold back if I had an update.

He seemed to pick up on the vibe and turned his attention to

Spence. “How was school?”

“The place is already a faint memory, one I intend to keep in my past,” Spence said flippantly.

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Griffin smiled. “You’ll adjust.”

Spence scowled. He knew full well that if he wanted to stay in

this town, he’d be finishing off his schooling. Finding somewhere to focus his retaliation, he came closer to me as I stretched out my calves. “Man, you’ve gotten cocky, Eden.”

“Sorry?” I responded, but I knew where he was going.

“You really think you needed to bring the Griffster along?” he

scoffed. “As if I won’t be able to hand you your ass!”

I just kept stretching.

It wasn’t that Spence wasn’t a great fighter, but I was getting better all the time. Stronger and faster. Not as strong as Lincoln, but his training me had really paid off. Since I’d started doing my sessions without him, I’d been adding extra ones no one else knew about— taking long runs early in the morning and working out late every night, having converted half of my art studio into a gym. I was fitter than ever.

I knew all of Spence’s moves, and he relied on the easy wins.

When they failed, he had a flair for the dramatic, but to be honest, I think he was a bit scared to try out the wing- and- prayer stuff with me. Tactical fighting had me beating him regularly these days, and I needed to keep challenging myself.

“Okay. Leg- only combat. No hands,” Griffin said, then added,

“and no heads.”

I smiled at Spence, jumping up and down on the spot to stay

warm. “You told him I head- butted you.”

He looked guilty. “That shit hurt, Eden.”

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“Let’s go,” Griffin said, clapping his hands together and taking up umpire position under the cover of the tree.

I wiped the rain from my eyes and quickly made sure we didn’t

have an audience. Spence came straight in, gung ho, like always.

I dodged his first three kicks and worked to move him around,

to keep his focus on staying in time with my movements. His leg struck out again and I dodged, but he kept swinging, hitting my ribs hard with his second pass. I stumbled back.

“You all right?” Griffin asked calmly.

“Yep,” I said without hesitation.

I swallowed down the pain and told myself it was fine. I needed to be able to take hits too.