Sacrifice (12 page)

“That’s not a bad idea.” I gave him a watery smile. After another moment, I released his hand. We exited my car and walked together toward the Guard’s house.

Lucas held the door open for me. We settled down to study at the Guard’s large round dining table. It was a vocabulary test, so we spent the first half hour writing words and their definitions on the opposite sides of index cards. As we finished making the cards, I heard the door to the basement open behind us. Sitting where we were, we were hidden from the hallway; they didn’t know we were here.

Rhea’s voice sent a shock through my body. “I want an answer, Gretchen!”

“Oh, you don’t say?” Gretchen’s voice was heavily laced with sarcasm. “Would that be why you’re hounding my every step?”

“They’re all exhausted,” Rhea hissed. “You know it as well as I do. How long do you think we can keep this up?”

“As long as we have to,” Gretchen answered, her voice hard as nails. “It’s what we signed up for. No one promised it’d be easy.”

“And when we burn ourselves out? What use will we be to the cause then?”

“Look, what do you want from me?”

“I want the truth. Is there another spotter in town?”

I glanced at Lucas, tension knotting through my back. He looked as disturbed as I felt.

“Yes,” Gretchen said, “but she’s not interested in joining the Guard.”

“Are you kidding me with this shit?” Rhea laughed bitterly. “I don’t care if she’s not interested. We need her.”

“Well, good luck recruiting her.”

“Where are you going? We’re not finished here!”

We heard a heavy thud, followed by Gretchen’s growl of outrage. “Get your hands off of me!”

Lucas and I heard a pounding as someone charged down the stairs from the second story above. “Whoa, whoa! What the hell is going on here?” Hale’s voice cut through the scuffle.

“Nothing,” Gretchen said, breathing heavily. “Internal spotter disagreement.”

“Rhea?” Hale’s voice was cold.

“I don’t know what’s going on here,
sir,
” she practically spit the title out, “but you need to get your people organized. If there’s another spotter in town, we need her onboard. I don’t care what it takes. We are spread too thin. We’re starting to make mistakes—”

I stood, pushing my chair back with a scraping sound. The group in the hall fell silent. I walked to meet them. Rhea’s expression darkened when she spotted me.

“Karayan and I can take more shifts,” I offered. “We’ve taken shifts to cover sick spotters before.”

“Yes.” Hale actually looked relieved. “That’s a great idea, Braedyn.”

Rhea glared at me, but turned her outrage on Hale. “Seriously? You know of another
human
spotter in town, and you’d rather assign the responsibility to a demon?”

“Rhea, whatever your problem with Braedyn is, get over it.” Hale’s tone as good as said this discussion was over.

Red splotches of anger bloomed on Rhea’s cheeks. “If something goes wrong, it’s on you, Hale.” Rhea raked her eyes over my body before she snorted her disgust and walked away.

Gretchen’s shoulders sagged slightly. She glanced at me, concerned. “Sorry about that. She’ll come around.”

“Do you really believe that?” I asked.

Gretchen glanced at Hale, conspicuously not answering my question.

“Don’t worry about Rhea,” Hale said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll keep her in line. And thanks.” He gave me a gentle smile. “For stepping up. Rhea’s not wrong. The spotters are stretched too thin right now. Any relief we can give them will go a long way to keeping our forces strong and ready to fight.”

“Amen to that,” Gretchen said, stretching her shoulders. “And on that note, I need to grab a few Zs. I’m on shift tonight.”

Gretchen headed up stairs, giving me a friendly wave goodbye. I smiled back at her, but my thoughts circled around Amber. I didn’t want her to have any part of the Guard… but was that really my call?

Chapter 7

Waiting. I hated waiting, stranded on the sidelines without a sense of which way to turn. A week passed with no news. Cassie heard nothing from Carrie about the meeting. Ian and Thane discovered nothing that would indicate how the Lilitu had slipped past our safety net at the mission. Whatever our enemy was doing, we were blind to it.

To make matters even more awesome, Rhea and the other spotters had started making it clear just exactly how much they didn’t want me around. If I showed up for a sparring session in the basement while they were training, they’d clear out wordlessly. If I passed them coming in or going out of the Guard’s house, they’d find some way to shoulder me aside “accidentally.” And if they spotted me with Lucas, they’d follow us, staring at me with open hostility, doing nothing to disguise the fact that they thought it was insane that Hale allowed me to fraternize with him.

After an excruciatingly long weekend dodging the spotters at the Guard’s house, I was more than ready to head back to school. Just the thought of having a day to hang out with Cassie and Royal and Lucas—and no spotters—was enough to lift my spirits.

But when I saw Royal exiting his flashy sports car on Monday morning, all those good feelings evaporated in a flash of panic. He’d been looking tired and sick for weeks now, but something had changed for the worse. His skin was sallow, almost sunken. Dark circles rimmed his bloodshot eyes. His normally artfully tousled brown hair hung limp and dull.
He looks like a corpse,
I thought, immediately chilled by the image.

“Holy crap,” Lucas breathed, spotting Royal moments after I had.

“Something’s wrong.” I grabbed Lucas’s hand. We walked together to meet Royal. Cassie was getting out of the passenger side. She looked as worried as I felt, her eyes riveted to Royal as he shouldered his school bag.

Royal saw us coming and forced a smile. It didn’t reach his eyes, and after a moment he let it fade. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said. Even his voice was listless. But the spark of Royal was still there, somewhere deep inside. His eyebrows quirked and he said, pointedly, “come on. You’re going to give a guy a complex.”

“You feeling okay, man?” Lucas asked gently. “You look like you could use a good night’s sleep.”

Royal shivered, and a shadow of terror crossed his face. “Pass. I’ve had more than enough sleep. I just wake up feeling worse than when I went to bed.”

The icy prickle of recognition crept over my shoulders. “Royal?” I caught his arm and turned him to face me, trying to keep my voice from exposing the panic that just sent my heart racing. “Have you been dreaming about Seth?”

Royal’s face registered shocked surprise. “How did you know that?” he whispered.

“Oh no,” Lucas breathed.

I turned abruptly away, afraid of letting the others see the sudden rage blazing inside.

Cassie spoke behind me, suddenly catching on. “You think—you think Seth is visiting his dreams?”

“It would explain why he’s so tired after a full night’s sleep.” Lucas’s voice was measured, but I could tell he was shaken, too.

“How?” Fear tinged Royal’s voice. “How does that explain anything?”

“Because he’s feeding off of your energy while you sleep,” I said, turning back around.

“So… exactly how bad is this?” Royal’s face drained of the last of his color. “I mean, is he—he can’t turn me into a Thrall?”

“Not unless he attacks you again in the physical world,” Lucas said.

“These dreams, they—they’re really vivid,” Royal said, running a shaking hand through his hair.

“But—I have vivid dreams all the time,” Cassie said. She glanced from Royal to Lucas and me, her eyes pleading. “How do we know Seth’s involved?”

“There’s one way to find out.” Lucas glanced at me. “Braedyn can search for any sign of Seth, any evidence that he’s been messing with Royal’s thoughts.”

Royal eyed me, uneasy. “And how would she go about doing that?”

“By visiting your dreaming mind.” I met Royal’s gaze. He licked his lips, his eyes darting to Lucas and Cassie. The bell rang, and the last of the stragglers started heading inside for first period. I caught Royal’s hand then. “I promised to keep you safe, Royal. And right now, that means defending your dreams from that psycho creep.”

Royal nodded slowly. “Do what you have to do.” He gave me a lopsided smile. “Just try not to break anything while you’re in there, okay?”

I smiled in return, but as soon as Royal turned away, I let my smile fade. Royal meant nothing to Seth. If he was tormenting my friend, it was about something bigger than exploiting a schoolboy crush for a midnight snack. I’d thought Seth was in our rearview mirror. I’d thought wrong.

When I got home that afternoon, Thane, Ian, and Hale were waiting with Dad in the dining room. Ian and Dad stood as I entered.

“What’s this?” I set my book bag down and shrugged out of my overcoat.

“Thane and Ian have a theory. They want to talk with you. Why don’t you join us.” Dad pulled out an empty chair next to him, making room for me at the dining room table—and ensuring he’d placed himself between the archivists and me. I joined them, eyeing Thane uneasily. He remained seated, eyes tracking my every movement. Beside me, Dad’s shoulders were knotted with tension. As closely as Thane watched me, Dad watched Thane.

“What do they think I’ve done?” I couldn’t mask the defensive note in my voice.

“Guilty conscience?” Thane’s eyes glittered with malicious amusement.

Since the night of Senoy’s death, it was hard for me to be in the same room as Thane. The memory of him raising a sword to strike me down was too fresh. If not for Sansenoy, Thane would have executed me that night. Something Dad wasn’t about to forget, either. I felt a swell of gratitude to him for shielding me.

“Braedyn, it’s okay,” Hale said quickly. “You’re not in trouble.”

“We’ve come to ask a favor, child,” Ian said, smiling kindly. Thane gave him a sidelong glance. If I had to bet, I’d say this theory was Ian’s, not Thane’s. “From you and Karayan, actually. Is she here?”

Dad didn’t take his eyes off Thane. “Karayan? Could you join us for a moment?”

I heard the door to the guest room open down the hall. In a moment, Karayan emerged. She perched against the entryway to the dining room. She was wearing a pair of snug jeans and a tank top, despite the cool February day. Her hair hung loosely over her shoulders with the same casual elegance that stylists work for hours to achieve for their clients.

Her eyes flicked over the assembled. “You rang?”

“Yes, thank you. Neither we nor the spotters have been able to detect how the Lilitu got past our soldiers,” Ian explained. “So Thane and I got to theorizing. Perhaps there are subtleties to the Seal that a Lilitu might pick up on, something not even the spotters can see.”

I glanced at Karayan. She met my eyes and shrugged. “Maybe.”

“We would like you to return to the mission and do a thorough examination of the Seal and the surrounding area.” Ian leaned forward. “Anything you might see could be significant.”

“Sure.” I glanced at Dad.

He nodded slowly. “I’ll come with you.”

“I’ll come, too,” Hale added. “Murphy, can you drive?”

“Let me grab my coat.” Dad stood.

“If you find anything, no matter how trivial it seems, please report it,” Ian said.

Twenty minutes later, we were heading out of town toward the mission poised in the foothills of the mountains surrounding Puerto Escondido. Karayan and I sat in the back of Dad’s SUV while Hale rode shotgun.

Hale glanced back at Karayan. “I appreciate your help.”

“I’ve been waiting for the Guard to give me something useful to do.” Karayan gave Hale a winning smile. “I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”

Hale’s eyes caught on Karayan for a moment. Then he gave her a smile and turned back to face the road. “I suppose it is time you started earning your keep.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“Technically, it’s sergeant.” But Hale sounded pleased.

“Hang on, everyone. It’s going to get a little bumpy.” Dad turned off the main road, slowing as the SUV made the transition from paved to gravel road. The road to the mission cut back and forth in a serpentine path up the side of the mountain, finally opening onto a small plateau.

The mission overlooked the town of Puerto Escondido, and the view was breathtaking. From here, the town looked like the kind of picture you’d see on a Christmas card. Thin trails of wispy smoke rose from a few fireplaces. Snow edged the mountains all around us, frosting the land in a sparkling white. The snow also acted as a natural sound-dampener. Even our breath sounded distinct against the quiet of the landscape. It was overwhelmingly peaceful. But that sense of peace faded as I turned to face the mission. Inside, a door stood open between our world and the world of the Lilitu. That made this ground zero in our war.

We made our way into the stone mission. Somehow it felt even colder inside, although candles lit the space, offering their meager warmth for our comfort. A dozen or so Guardsmen were standing watch, along with two spotters—I think their names were Taryn and Ellie–who gripped their dagger hilts as they eyed us.