Everlost (The Night Watchmen Series Book 3) (10 page)

“Are you a part of the Rebellion?” Weldon asks hastily, watching the screen by his door that shows right outside Sterling’s room. “Can we trust you?”

“Hello to you too,” Sterling replies, leaning back in his chair.

Weldon turns to look at him, eyes flat.

“Yes,” Sterling says, his gaze serious. Stern. “And I’m under strict orders by Maddock that should you return, I am to warn you against breaking the Unholy Seal. If you do… if you cut the ties to the one thing keeping the paranormal from walking freely amongst the humans, then you cut the funds that keep our Coven going.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask, eyebrows scrunched.

“The Proclamation. In the agreement met with the United Nations, it was said that so long as we remained hidden, they would fund our Coven to protect the humans. If we break that agreement, then they take away our only means of living. Before we knew Clara had turned dark, we figured the Priesthood knew what they were doing. We didn’t think twice about the Proclamation. But now… now we’re going to need those funds if we’re going to maintain this Coven after we overthrow Clara.”

“Is that the plan for the Rebellion? To bring Clara down?” I ask, feeling hope trickle through the holes in my heart.

He nods.

“But what about the Exanimator? We can’t get rid of Clara without getting rid of the Darkyns, and they run off the Exanimator locked in the Underground,” Weldon reminds us. “That was the whole point of breaking both the seals… so we could find a way into the Underground and be rid of the Darkyns once and for all.”

“And we have thought of all of this, Weldon,” Sterling says. “We’ve spent years perfecting our strategy, and we’ve finally reached a point where we think we’re ready. Ready to take out both the Darkyns and Clara at the same time.”

“How?” I ask.

“There may be another way into the Underground,” Sterling says with a small smile. He hands me the rolled-up piece of paper. “This is all I have for now. It’s a map of the location where the hole left from Mourdyn and Bael’s deal is. I’m gathering Intel on the rest of the mission now. Where are you staying?”

“We can’t tell you that,” Weldon says evenly.

The general nods. “Right. Listen, I’ll find a way to leak a signal to you when I have more information through the Night Watchmen News. When you see it, we’ll meet here on the rooftop, and I’ll give you the rest of the plans.”

“We should meet outside of the city,” Weldon says, moving to stand next to me.

“Can’t. They’re already watching me like a hawk. But the roof is clear.”

A knock sounds at the door. We all turn to find Clara and five Elites with guns aimed at the door through the small screen on Sterling’s wall.

“Open up!” Clara says murderously. “I know she’s in there.”

“Oh no,” I say.

“Don’t worry about me. I can handle her. Just get out of here safely,” the general says, grabbing his gun off the table.

“Shut the lights off,” Weldon says. “I need a shadow.”

The general reaches for the light switch. Clara’s banging on the door, motioning for an Elite. Bullets tear into the walls, seeking us out.

The lights go out.

“I’ll send word as soon as I can,” the general says before Weldon pulls me into a shadow.

KATIE’S IN TEARS BY THE time we cross back into the kitchen of the manor.

Everyone’s there, waiting by the kitchen table, though no one’s sitting. Jaxen rushes over to me the moment we cross. I set the map down on the table and sink into him when he pulls me into a tight hug. He doesn’t have to say anything to tell me all that he’s feeling, because I feel it too. I know how close we came to destruction.

Katie’s right behind me, still clutching onto my shirt. She’s making small sniffling noises, and each one puts another crack in my heart.

“Presents!” Gavin says loudly as he reaches across the table for the map. He doesn’t waste any time unrolling it. Cassie grabs apples from the basket and sets them on the corners of the large paper.

Weldon falls into a chair next to Jezi, digging his hand through his hair. “That was too close for my taste,” he says as she hands him an already poured glass of blood.

She was waiting for him, I think, just as anxiously as Jaxen waited for me.

I turn to Katie and grab her hand. She’s trying to look anywhere but in the direction of people, but I can see her brown eyes are rimmed in red. I look back at Jaxen, who’s cataloging my appearance, taking note of every bruise. Every bloodstain.

“You’re wound isn’t fully healed,” he says, lightly touching my shoulder.

It’s then that pain decides it’s time for me to feel. Sharp pains lance through my entire body with every movement. “I’m fine,” I lie through gritted teeth. “There wasn’t enough time.”

I close my eyes and say a quick healing spell, feeling the hole in my arm weave back together and the tethers of tenderness and discomfort slowly subside.

“Jezi, check Weldon’s calf, please.”

She nods and goes right to work, not giving him a chance to fuss at her.

“I’m going to take Katie upstairs for a minute,” I say quietly, finding Jaxen’s green eyes. “Sterling gave me a map. You can go over that in the meantime.”

He nods, and then turns away, giving Katie the space she needs. I make quick work of guiding her down the hallway and up the stairs. She never stops to ask me where we are. Never stops to take in the haunting beauty of this house.

“I can’t leave him there, Faye,” she says, panicked, the minute I close the door to my room behind us. “We have to go back. We have to.” She moves to the chaise lounge by the window and sits, pulling her knees up to her chest. She’s holding herself so tightly, as if she’s afraid she might fall apart if she lets go.

I pull the curtains open, letting the morning light in. “We’ll go back, Katie. I swear. We just have to figure a few things out first.” I sit across from her, crossing my legs in front of me. “You’ll see. Weldon’s a great asset. He’s an awesome partner. And Gavin and Jaxen are good with formulating plans. And Cassie and Jezi are stellar Witches. They’ll help us. We’ll get everyone back.”

“You sound so sure. Clara’s a monster, and she has so many under her command now.” She sniffs and looks up at me. I don’t know how I can feel like I’m staring at a stranger who looks and sounds like the girl I grew up with. There’s a hardness in her eyes that wasn’t there the last time I saw her, so many months ago. There are memories and stories, and so many unshared secrets between us. It feels so heavy.

I smile at her. She smiles back. Neither smile reaches our eyes.

‘It’s not going to be easy,” I say, “but that’s not going to stop us.”

It goes quiet, and I count the seconds while my brain scrambles for something to say. Anything. The right thing, but she’s staring at me like I’m an outsider. Like this is the first time we’ve met, and we know absolutely nothing about each other. And maybe we don’t. At least, not anymore.

I almost jump when she finally speaks.

“My father told me you were doing good.” Her words barely lift over the sound of the ceiling fan twirling above us.

My forehead scrunches.

“He said he saw you a while ago. That you were training and coming into your own. He said… he said you were powerful.”

I don’t like the way my body heats up. The way I feel almost embarrassed to admit what I’ve finally come to accept. How I feel like I’m sitting in front of someone I don’t know, having to explain who I am and what I can do.

“There’s so much that has happened. So much I wanted to tell you,” she says, almost as if she’s borrowing the words straight from my mouth. But it’s her next words that freeze my heart in place. “I hated you. For a long time.”

I’m stunned silent. Shot in the heart by her admittance. Gutted by her careless words that cut deeper than any blade could.

And she doesn’t stop there.

“I hated that you were off in Ethryeal City, living this grand life, while I was stuck at the Academy, duking it out with all the other novices and praying the Darkyns didn’t attack us again. Praying that by some miracle, their attacks wouldn’t finally be enough to break down the magical barricade. And praying that my parents wouldn’t be one of the many affinity partners killed while trying to stop them.”

My body is as stiff as a metal pole. “My life wasn’t grand,” I sputter, gaping at her as the burners in my cheek flip on high. “It was anything but grand, Katie. And I did everything I could, I’m still doing everything I can, to see an end to the Darkyns.”

“Still,” she says carelessly, her gaze dropping to the floor. “You got out. And you did it without me.”

I look out the window as my pulse beats through my ears. As my thoughts scrabble through shock, anger, and betrayal. Words… they’re rushing up my throat like acid. They’re stomping against my tongue like tiny soldiers, ready for battle. But my lips remain shut. They remain loyal to my heart, even though my mind is pushing hard to fight back.

“I did what I was forced to do, Katie. I had no choice.” She looks back out the window and, still, I press on. “You really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Then tell me,” she says hotly, glaring at me. “Tell me why you so quickly forgot about our promise to each other? About remaining friends?”

Swallowing thickly, I try to keep my temper in check. I close my eyes as I search for strength. Images of everything that has happened pass through my mind like a ghost train. Pain that I’ve tried to ignore surfaces.

“That nightmare you’re worried about. About being attacked by Darkyns. About your parents being taken… maybe even killed,” I say through my teeth. “I’ve lived it, Katie… am still living it. The Darkyns attacked us when I was forced to find and put together the Dagger of Retribution. I barely made it out of that situation alive. Bael tried to take me with him to the Underground, but Weldon was able to save me. And then we were summoned to Ethryeal City, where I was experimented on and tortured by Clara. When I was released from her, I found out that she had something to do with my parents’ disappearance. Apparently, they had found out about her dealing with the Darkyns, and Clara had to cover her tracks. I tried to take her down, but once again, I was forced to break the Holy Seal and she was released. After that, we barely made it out of that courtroom with our heads.

“Jaxen and the rest have been banished to the Underground. They can never return. And me, I was sentenced to the Correctional Facility. And I still have more to do. I still have so much left to go through, because my parents are still out there, maybe dead… maybe alive, and our people are dying left and right while Clara destroys this Coven from the inside out. If you think that’s glamorous, well, then…” I break off. Pace across the room.

I’m so mad and upset, and I feel so used and so misunderstood. I feel betrayed by her. Betrayed by the fact that she thinks I actually wanted any of this. I feel like I’m standing in front of a jury. Like I’m defending my honor. Not like how I’m supposed to feel. Not open, honest, and without shame.

Not like she’s my best friend.

“Faye, I’m sorry,” she says, her voice faltering. “This is all just so… so not how I pictured our life panning out at this age. And I’ve missed you. So much it hurts. I feel so… so disconnected from you.”

I suck in a deep breath, wishing it would cleanse the disappointment from my system. “I do too,” I admit. “It sucks.”

She pulls her legs back in and turns to the window as silence creeps in between us. I sit on the edge of the bed. Stare at the door, wishing I knew how to go back. How to make our friendship what it once was.

But people change. Things happen to us and we change, and if you aren’t moving at the same pace, then sometimes, those friends can be left behind. Sometimes, there’s no way to go back. Because life isn’t an hourglass you can just flip over when time runs out. It’s constantly moving. Constantly turning.

And I don’t know if I can find my way back to her.

A knock sounds on the door, and then Jaxen pokes his head in. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

I look over at Katie, who’s still staring out the window, and then quickly make my way across the room. After shutting the door behind me, he pulls me back against the wall. He’s pulling at his ear, his face as pale as a ghost.

“Everything going okay?” he asks me, shifting in his stance. He looks somewhat uncomfortable, restless even. Or maybe just anxious.

“As okay as they can be,” I say, watching his movements with narrowed eyes. “What’s wrong?”

His gaze stops ping-ponging around me and locks on mine. He pulls in a deep breath, and then slowly releases it. “My uh—my mom is coming. Like right now. When you were gone, Gavin ran into her outside and agreed for her to come by tonight to explain everything that had happened.”

Oh.

“Are you okay?” I ask, running my hand down his arm.

His eyebrows bunch together. He rubs his fingers across his forehead as if the very motion itself will dispel all the pent-up emotions he has stored within his steel walls. “Honestly? I don’t know. I’m a little bit of everything right now, and I’m trying to do what Gavin told me, which is to take it one second at a time and hear her out. Give her a shot.”

“That’s good advice,” I say quietly.

He looks down at me. “Yeah, maybe for someone who’s in better control of their emotions.”

“You are in control.”

He shrugs dismissively. “I see it as… the worst that can happen is I don’t forgive her. At least then, I won’t have to forgive myself for never giving her a chance. Right?”

He’s looking at me with eyebrows raised. Waiting for me to tell him how to get through this. To give him strength. It’s a strange feeling. A good strange to be needed this way… by him.

I kiss his cheek. His lips. Wait for that moment when his body relaxes, and then my soul smiles, knowing that with me, he is safe. With me, he can be more than he thinks he is, because he sees it reflecting in my gaze. “It sounds to me like you already have a pretty good handle on it.”

He sighs. “I guess we’ll find out.” He glances at the door to our room. “Jezi agreed to move downstairs so Katie can have this room.” He’s pointing to the room next to ours. “I figured she’d want to stay close to you, especially since she doesn’t really know any of us.”

I drop my gaze and try to swallow past the bed of rocks lodged in my throat. “I’m not so sure I really know her anymore either.”

He pulls me into a hug, and it takes all my strength to keep from crying. To keep from spilling out just how far away I feel from the one person I used to tell all my deepest, darkest secrets to. It’s like realizing the world is round after I told everyone it was flat. Like being stuck in a freezing cold room with no way out. It’s paralyzing. Earth shattering.

“This wasn’t how I imagined our reunion would be. There’s so much that happened… so much that she doesn’t understand. So much that I don’t understand about her. How can I look at her and feel like I’m home, but also like I’m standing in the presence of a stranger all at the same time?”

He runs his hands over the back of my head, holding me close. “She’s just in shock right now. Her partner was left behind. Give it some time.”

I pull back to look at him, closing my eyes when he presses his lips against mine. Just as much as I root him, he roots me. We keep each other from falling, slipping, diving into a world neither of us wants to be in.

“They have more than just Chett. They have her parents too. She said they have everyone involved with the rebellion.”

His entire body tenses up like a board of wood. “Mack.” He opens the door, and Katie jolts upright out of her seat. “Do they have Mack too?”