Traitor (17 page)

She strode away, closely followed by
Phoenix
.

One of the Guardians pulled me inside by the hair. “Bad enough you knocked them out without embarrassing them as well,” he spat, dragging me into a cell. He found the remote in my pocket, and he smiled as he used it to lock me away. He didn’t bother to tag me with the bracelet, and I was glad for that one thing.

A hissing sound signalled sleep, and my eyes closed of their own accord. But my body kept twitching and bucking, no matter what I did.

***

“Ava, wake up.”

A bottle was brought to my lips, and cool water poured into my mouth. I tried to drink, but my lips kept twitching, and the water spilled down my front.

Something small was pressed into my mouth, and a hand squeezed over my mouth. “Swallow.”

I obeyed, opening and closing my eyes a couple of times. Water came again, and most of it found its way down my aching throat.

The lights were stark and bright, and when my eyes adjusted, I realised I was still in the cells.
Phoenix
knelt over me, his forehead lined with stress, and his hand pressed against my side.

“Get away from me,” I managed to croak out, still stinging from the betrayal and feeling the pain of that whip. “You sly fucker.”

“Don’t talk,” he said. “It’ll just hurt. I’m here to get you out. This will burn a little, but it’ll keep the wound closed until you can get new stitches. Hold still, Ava.”

I held my breath as he layered some kind of paste over the wound. When he said it would burn a little, I wasn’t aware that he meant the kind of little burn that might come from a volcano in hell.

“Is this a new torture tactic you’ve come up with? Because I kind of prefer the whip.”

He stopped and stared at me, his eyebrows rising.

I thumped his shoulder. “I’m kidding! That was the worst experience of my life.” I hit him again, a little harder, but he didn’t seem to notice.

He sighed. “I needed her to trust me. To confide in me some more. She wants me to take the empty seat on the Council. It will give her more power, and she’s willing to do anything to get it, including use those children. We can’t let that happen. The knife that fell in your house. It made everything clear. This is bigger than either of us thought.”

I blinked a couple of times, trying to get his face into clear focus to see if I could tell if he was lying or not. I wasn’t convinced I was even awake. “What?”

“I’m sorry I hurt you. I realised you weren’t alone by the way you were glancing to your left at the door. And when my mother saw you, I knew I had to act first. The only way to get your friends out was to distract everyone with you and get my mother fully on my side.”

“You… Lorcan was there.”

“And he probably heard you scream.” He closed his eyes, a pang of regret in his expression. “This was the only way I could stop her from killing you. You don’t understand what she’s like. She thrives on the pain. She’s courted darkness, and she’s greedy when it comes to causing harm. I did what I had to do to save you.” He adjusted my shirt carefully before helping me to my feet.

I realised the cells had an extra couple of guards. “You didn’t,” I whispered, glancing around.

“I borrowed your idea,” he said.

“It was Lorcan’s idea.”

His grin was sudden. “Come on. We have to get out of here while she’s busy. Gabe is trying his best to persuade Erossi it would be a mistake to allow me a seat on the Council. In fact, all of the remaining consultants are giving her an exceptionally hard time. We’ll use it to our advantage.” He wrapped his arm around my waist, careful not to lean against my wound.

I stared up at him. “Who the hell
are
you,
Phoenix
?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

 
He helped me out of the cell and toward the door.

“What about all of these people?” I asked. “They shouldn’t be here. Not all of them.”

“No time now,” he said. “We have to be quick. There’s something happening tonight. We can slip out unnoticed while everyone’s distracted.”

“Wait, what’s happening tonight?”

“I’ll tell you everything I know when we get out of here.”

We took a couple of steps, then
Phoenix
stopped. Numerous footsteps echoed in the halls. Running fast. Coming our way.

“Run,” I whispered. “Nobody knows you’re here yet.”

He glanced at me, squeezed his eyes shut, and shook his head. “I might not get another chance.” He pushed me behind him, taking out that whip again.

A group of people ran around the corner, and I choked out a sound. Rebels and neighbours, people I had been hard on so they would respect me. They were friends, no matter where I went wrong.

The twins, Val, Carl, Esther, even Ry. Fifteen people stood there, staring at us in surprise, until Lorcan recovered. He took a couple of steps toward us, shaking with anger.

“You,” he spat at his father. “You did this.”

“It’s not what you think,”
Phoenix
said.

“We
heard
you,” Lorcan hissed. “We heard her scream. She saved our lives, and you tortured her. You made us think you cared, but you’re just another enemy.” He raised his sword, the glyphs turning green. “I’m more than ready to say goodbye to you.”

I willed
Phoenix
to move, to run, to say something, but he put his hands behind his back and stood there, right in the path of his own lost sword.

I pulled
Phoenix
backward right as the sword sliced down. Then I screamed with pain and fell over ever so inelegantly.

“Oh, holy fuck,” I hissed, rolling over so I wasn’t leaning on my wound anymore. “Mother of…” I blinked away tears. “Lorcan, put the goddamn sword away. He’s got me out of the cell. He’s helping.”

Lorcan dropped the sword and helped Carl get me to my feet.

“Trust you,” Carl said. “Always getting into trouble.”

Lorcan looked so confused that I laughed.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I said. “What are you all doing here?”

“Gabe, Elathan, and Eddie are distracting Fionnuala while we get you out of here,” Esther said, eyeing
Phoenix
warily. “What’s going on with
him
?”

“He was trying to fool Fionnuala.” I felt ill. Dizzy. “And you’re all idiots for coming here. What if you get caught?”

“We couldn’t leave you here,” Ry said.

I couldn’t hide my smile.

“We can’t trust him,” Lorcan said. The others gathered around us, closing in as if to prevent a physical fight.

“I won’t do anything to cause you harm,”
Phoenix
said. “I made a deal to protect you, and I will.”

I added, “He said Fionnuala wants to take over, that she’ll use the children’s power to do it if anyone goes against her.”

“Yeah, we know,” Carl said, wincing as he looked at my bloody shirt. “We found somebody who knew Raven, confirmed she was working for some fae. Shay found some paperwork that points back at the fae. We knew Fionnuala had to be involved, and we didn’t think you would last the night in here, so…”

“So here you are. We need to get out of here. She’s… strong.” I glanced at
Phoenix
. “Are you coming with us?”

He nodded, but he was looking at Lorcan. “I had to hurt her to give you all time to get away,” he said. “It was the only way to save her life and yours.”

Lorcan huffed and picked up the sword, refusing to look at his father. We had no time for reconciliations. We needed to get out of the Council’s Headquarters before Fionnuala copped on and brought on the pain.

We fled the corridor, turning and weaving and not stopping for a second. A shudder ran through the building, and I bumped into Carl, losing my balance. He supported my weight, but his face had paled.

“What the hell was that?” he asked.

“I don’t like it,” Val said. “Keep moving.”

I glanced around to ask
Phoenix
, but he was gone. I squeezed my eyes shut. Why had I trusted him? Why did I keep trusting people and then being surprised when they let me down? “Hurry,” I urged.

We ran, no longer caring about being quiet. The walls shuddered again, as if an earthquake was underfoot, and we all fell to the floor, colliding into one another. Cracks ran down the walls, and fear gripped me all over again.

“We need to get out of here. Now!”

We got up and ran again. I listened out for footsteps coming our way. Thunder rumbled so loudly outside that I heard it underground. We were running out of time. Somebody had pissed off the weather warden, and I really didn’t want my friends to face Fionnuala when she was in that kind of mood.

The scent of fear filled the hallway. I tried to count to calm myself, but the constant twitching of my body made it impossible to concentrate. My lungs burned as we ran, but I kept experiencing flashbacks. The way the whip felt, what it did to my body, I would never forget it.

We turned a corner and bumped into each other trying to come to a stop. A group of ten hooded assassins, all carrying bloody weapons, blocked our path.

My friends charged. I tried to follow, but Ry got in my way.

“Sit still,” he said, gripping his bow and arrow fiercely. “You’re in no state to fight. They’ll deal with it, and if anyone breaks through, they’ll die.” Sweat trickled down his temples.

I leaned against the wall, feeling completely defenceless without my dagger. I was forced to watch as my friends took on Guardians dressed as assassins, trained fighters determined to kill. I almost freaked when Carl was knocked to the floor. He barely managed to stab his attacker in the gut. Val crushed skulls, and the others fought just the way Esther had taught them—as a team.

Ry shot an arrow at an assassin who shoved Lorcan aside to rush at us. The arrow caught him in the eye, and the assassin fell.

Ry wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “Close,” he said in a shaky voice.

“It was perfect,” I said. “You know what you’re doing.”

He gave me a grateful smile and let another arrow loose, freeing Val of the assassin on her back. She roared, and it was as if the sound gave the group strength. We could win. I again moved to join them, but Ry gripped me by the collar and yanked me back.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said. “They’ll kill me if I don’t keep you here, and Val is far scarier than you. Sorry.”

I leaned against the wall, watching my friends work together as if they had been training together all their lives. They slaughtered with no mercy until the last of the assassins fell.

We didn’t have time to check injuries. We had to keep running. When we grew closer to the main hall, we heard shouts and screams.

“We can cut around them or join in,” Esther said. “We don’t know who’s fighting or whose side they’re on. I think we should try to avoid the battles.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Val said. “Ava’s hurt. We can regroup later.”

With a grim nod, Esther turned, and we all followed. We planned to cut through a large hall, but as soon as we rushed through the doors, they slammed shut behind us, and another rumbling began under our feet.

The opposite doors opened. Fionnuala stepped through with a smug grin.

She wasn’t alone.

My stomach turned as I took in the sheer number of enemies before us. Fionnuala strolled in next to a tall, pretty brunette who looked vaguely familiar. Both women looked unruffled and clean, haughty and smug. The brunette had to be fae.

Reuben was behind them, his eyes blood-red and crazed, along with Gideon and some vampires I recognised from his coven, but none of them looked quite as confident as their leader. Many were already wounded, although most had bloodstains around their mouths.

Gideon’s smug smile automatically switched my fear to anger. He and Reuben had betrayed our country when the BVA instigated war. Their alliance with Fionnuala spoke volumes and answered many of my questions.

Guardians, hooded assassins, and even some of the older children from the slave markets surrounded Fionnuala. She had finally gotten her wish to use the children as human shields.

My group tightened together, everyone’s hands on their weapons. Except for me. Standing up straight was a problem. I would be the first to die when the fighting began if Fionnuala had any sense.

Fionnuala took a step forward and cocked her head. “I should thank you for being predictable. You make it so
easy
for me.”

“Finally showing your true colours?” I asked, making an effort to keep my voice steady.

Lucia pushed her way next to me to touch my arm. Images of the tall brunette came to me in a flood. She was the woman who had taken the twins from their mother. Finally, the pieces were fitting together.

“Working for fae?” I directed at the vampires. “Wasn’t enough to screw everyone over with the BVA?”

“The time of being restrained by a quota is long over,” Reuben said. “Ancient and great beings should never answer to anyone.”

“You’re answering to a fae now,” Esther said with a scornful laugh. “Does she make you beg?”

Reuben took two steps before Fionnuala lifted a hand. Reuben froze, his face contorting and his chest heaving until he stepped back, furious.

“Don’t be so ridiculous,” Fionnuala said when he growled in complaint. “Falling for their games. You may as well be newly born.”

“Val,” I said under my breath. “Lead everyone out of here first chance you get. Lorcan, take Lucia and go now.”

“Not a chance,” Lorcan said. Lucia shook her head obstinately. I expected Val to protest and force Lucia out of there, but she held her ground and began shifting into her hellhound form.

Shit
. “So what’s the plan, Fionnuala?” I asked, stalling to give my group time to change their minds. “Take over… and what exactly? Working with the British, working with the vampires. Exactly whose side are you on?”

She gave me a chilling smile. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“I’d rather kill you.” She took one step forward.

Gabe, Elathan, and a number of injured and bloody Guardians, including Esther’s Circle, came running into the hall, joining us. Fionnuala didn’t look worried, despite being outnumbered.

Gabe pressed my dagger into my hands. “For a minute there, I thought we missed the fun and games,” he said wryly.

“Right on time,” I said. “Sorry for all those times we secretly suspected you were involved.”

He made a scoffing sound and stepped in front of me to address Fionnuala’s Guardians. “Disarm,” he commanded.

A couple of them exchanged worried glances.

“How lucky,” Fionnuala said. “Almost all of my problems will be removed in one clean sweep.”

“And now it becomes clear,” Gabe said, his hand trembling as he unsheathed a sword. “You didn’t
have
to murder Koda.”

“But I did,” Fionnuala said, sounding unregretful. “And I had to encourage Erossi to make an absolute fool of himself to the humans. It’ll make the takeover much easier for them to accept. My family are already beloved by our neighbours. The fae are the people’s champions. The media will spread acceptance, or they’ll die.”

“So that’s it?” I tried to look scornful instead of scared. “
That’s
the big plan?”

She exchanged a smile with the brunette beside her. “The big plan has been in the making for a very long time. I suppose I should thank you. It would have been awkward to explain where all of these talented young humans came from if you hadn’t given me a way to publicly reach out to them.”

“You helped the BVA,” Elathan said. “You could have brought disaster upon us all. But why am I surprised, given how you took over this country the first time? Betrayal is in your blood.”

She gave him a rueful smile. “Most of
this
takeover went as planned. The fae have been embarrassingly reluctant to stake their true claim over the last few centuries. Letting
you
live after you were expelled from your exile?” She shook her head. “Once upon a time, we showed no mercy to your kind. Reuben spoke wisely when he said he has been restrained. We’ve all been restrained from showing our true natures. And for what? To suffer half-breeds and mongrels speaking out as if equals and be forced to listen to the concerns of
humans
.”

“Times have changed,” Gabe said, “but only recently. Your schemes have been in the making for much longer than that.”

“True.” Fionnuala linked arms with the brunette, whose expression was unreadable. “Elaria and I came to an agreement a long time ago. A marriage and a true alliance. The slave markets have helped us build an army, right under the noses of the Irish Council and British Committee. The time became ripe for change, and all it took was a few nudges in the right direction”—she gestured at the brunette—“to eliminate Elaria’s competition: the weaker members of her family.”

“You killed your own family?” I blurted.

Elaria’s gaze passed over me as if I were invisible.

Fionnuala acted as though I hadn’t interrupted. “We’ve been watching and waiting for the right time. Koda had grown so weak, and Brogan practically begged me to lead him into disgrace, detestable little human upstart that he is. Erossi was his perfectly pliable replacement, and you, Gabe, you were so jaded that you didn’t care what happened right under your nose. Your inaction was key.”

Gabe’s hands tensed around the hilt of his weapon. “Don’t expect that to continue.”

She and Elaria exchanged an amused glance. “We’ll see, angel, but we’ve come too far now. There’s no going back for any of us, not after your mongrel revealed all to the humans. You know what’s going to happen, don’t you? The humans will fight and complain and insist on making life unpleasant for us all unless we teach them once again who exactly is in charge. It’s not too late for you, Gabe. There’s room for you in the new world.”

“I’ll take my chances,” he said.

I let out the breath I had been holding.

“How very noble,” Fionnuala sneered. “Luckily, other beings are smarter than you and your whims. Winston was so happy for Elaria’s assistance that I was able to keep my hands…
relatively
clean. At first, we thought the BVA would wipe out the Council, leaving sympathisers like me in charge while they conquered elsewhere. Once we realised the BVA’s hold was about to crumble, I and my soon-to-be daughter-in-law decided it was time to hasten the process. Winston didn’t even consider the fact that Reuben and Gideon were never his.” She gestured toward us. “And we were able to keep an eye on
this
crowd by promising a return to fortune for one of the disgraced fae.”

Desmond
.

“Why bother with them?” Elathan asked. “They’re no threat to you. Nor was Koda, for that matter.”

“They might have found out the truth too soon. The timing was important,” she said, as if she had been dying to spit out everything so we would know exactly how devious and clever she was. Her scornful gaze turned on me. “Once, I thought
she
could be trained, but she’s worthless. Her and her followers. Koda, on the other hand, was well-loved and well-informed. He needed to die before people chose a side.”

I focused on the teenage boy
Phoenix
, Leah, and I had met on our late-night visit to the children. “You sure
you’re
on the right side?”

He shrugged. “I just want to be free.”

“She’ll never set you free,” I said. “Not like this. You heard the way she talks about people like you and me. This isn’t your fight. Get the kids out of here and get back to the others. Be ready to protect yourselves because this won’t end here. There will always be people who want to use you all.”

Fionnuala had begun to speak over me, still lording over the fact she had outwitted Gabe. The children took their chances and fled. The vampires grew restless.

Fionnuala lifted her hand as if to attack.

Lorcan pushed in front of Gabe. “You’re our grandmother. Yet you stole us from our mother, sent us to the slave market, and took your own son’s memories. What kind of monster are you?”

Fionnuala’s hand shook. She refused to look at Lorcan, but her eyes were wild.

“We have a lot to do,” Gideon said in a low voice.

Fionnuala flinched then held up a finger. She looked toward the doors, and a relieved smile softened her features. “Ah, here he is.”

Phoenix
hurried into the room, Icarus trotting by his side. The fae held the whip in his hands, and he didn’t look at us as he strode toward his mother.

“Oh, good,” Fionnuala said. “There’s no need to exert ourselves. Get the dog to take its time with the tainted one. I enjoy her screams more than I can say.”

Lorcan nodded at me. “It’s almost time.”

“Do we make it?” I asked him.

“Lucia sees only darkness.”

I sighed. “Take as many of them down with us as we can then.”

Phoenix
reached his mother’s side. “Mother, let them go.”

Fionnuala’s eyebrows rose. “We don’t show our enemies mercy.”

He licked his lips. “Enemies.” His eyes grew cruel. “My children are not our
enemies
. Look at them.”

“You have no children!” Fionnuala shrieked.

Icarus growled viciously, the hackles on the back of his neck rising. He bared his fangs at Fionnuala. The vampires discreetly stepped back.

“I have two, and you took them from me,”
Phoenix
said. “Was that part of your plans? Am I of any concern to you at all?”

“You’re my son,” she said in a harsh voice. “Everything you do concerns me. But I warn you not to get in my way this time, you impertinent little boy.”

Elaria stepped toward
Phoenix
, holding out her hands to her so-called fiancé. “Surely you see this is for the best. We’re uniting our race, making us stronger. After our marriage, we will have a child who will one day rule realms.”

“I already have children,” he spat, rubbing his chest.

“They’re part-human.” Disgust was apparent in her tone. “Blotches on your name. An embarrassment to all of us. Forget the past. I can gloss over your indiscretions, but not until you give up these stupidly human ideas of yours for good.”

“
Phoenix
, this isn’t the time,” Fionnuala said impatiently. “Turn Icarus on them and end this.”

“Why did you take my memory?”
Phoenix
asked, sounding childlike. “It’s true, isn’t it, what they’ve told me about you? You’re the monster you’ve always been, the one my own father had to protect me from. No wonder I wanted to get away from you.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked. “I gave you what you wanted.”

He cracked the whip, and it wrapped around her neck. She made a scoffing sound, and he looked surprised.

She rolled up her sleeves, revealing swirling tattoos covering her arms. “I’ve learned a few tricks along the way. And my own creations can’t harm me. So what are you doing, you spineless boy?”

“Did you meet my son?” he asked. “Look at him. Isn’t he like me?”

She ignored his question. “You have no child. You’re damaged. Your mind was broken. You begged me to take your memories so the nightmares would stop. You’re obviously still deluded if you—”

Icarus’s snarl startled her into silence. The rest of us had frozen into place, but Lorcan inched closer to his blood relatives, fascination written all over his face.

Fionnuala finally looked at her grandson, her lips curving into a sneer. “You call this your son? It’s. Not. Fae.”

“He
is
my son!”
Phoenix
bellowed. “And you took him away from me, just as you took my father and my
wife
. Why? Why did you take everything from me?” He sounded as if he were about to burst into tears.

“Stop embarrassing me.” She glared at him. “You’re still the same. I can’t believe this. After all this time, you go ahead and revert to type with your bad timing. I removed your father for you. For
you
! And this is what I get. All of the plans I’ve made that you’ve
ruined
. I got rid of Brogan so you could take his seat, but you ran off with that human worm. I warned you I would find you. I told you what would happen. But did you listen? Never!”