Traitor (24 page)

Gabe woke everyone in the early hours of the morning and had us gather in my living room.

“The werewolves who guarded the children’s home are dead,” he told us. “I’m sorry,
Phoenix
. One of the Guardians made it long enough to pass on the word. The place is teeming with witches, and Eddie’s there.”

I blew out a breath. “Okay. I’m going.”

“And what if Eddie let that Guardian go to draw you there?” Carl asked.

“I can’t keep away. I told you what happened in Lucia’s visions. We can’t just sit by and let this happen.”

“I’ll come with you,” Esther said.

I shook my head. “He needs me for something. Eloise made that clear. There’s no need for everyone else to risk themselves.”

“What’s your plan?” Val asked.

I shrugged. “Somehow use his power against him if I get the chance. I’ll see when I get there.”

“That’s stupid,” Carl said. “You mean you’re going to kill yourself, because you can’t handle that kind of power now. It’s been getting worse every single time you do this conduit shit. I can’t sit here and let you do this to yourself.”

“I don’t want to go down there and see what he’s doing, but somebody has to, and for whatever reason, it’s come down to me. He needs me. Eloise told me. Maybe he can’t do whatever he wants to do without me. I don’t know, but I have to try to convince him to stop.”

“He’s not going to listen to you,” Peter said.

“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. It’s Eddie. He’s helped me. He’s helped all of us, and yeah, I know he’s a creepy weirdo sometimes, but he might see sense if I just talk to him.”

“Well, I’m going, too,” Carl said.

“No, you’re not.”

“You can’t stop me, Ava.”

“I can knock you out for a start.”

“Enough!” Gabe cried. “I’ll go with her and see if I can make some kind of deal with the man. We don’t even know for sure if he can pull off this kind of magic. This is serious stuff. He might not even survive the process. I’m confident that we’ll resolve this.” But he didn’t look confident. At all.

“I’m going,” I said. “I’m asking you not to come with me, Carl.”

A scream ripped through the house. I ran upstairs to Emmett’s room. He was sitting on his bed, shaking, his knees against his chest.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, kneeling beside him.

“She was here again. But she looked different. Weird. Scary. Something’s changed. She touched me, really touched me, and it was… something bad is happening, Ava. They’re everywhere. They’re all around me. I can see them.”

“See who?”

“The dead. They’re moving. He’s calling them, and they can’t stop. They don’t have a choice. I can’t make them stop anymore. They’re chained to him, and they can’t break free. I don’t understand, Ava. I saw Yvonne. She kept calling me. How?”

I swallowed hard, mentally cursing Peter for not telling him what happened.

“Emmett, I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head. “No. No! You protect everyone.”

“I can’t protect everybody, Emmett. People die. That’s just what happens. She did something dangerous, and she lost her life. But it was quick. She didn’t suffer.”

“But she’s suffering now! She’s trapped, too. They all are.” He shuddered. “I don’t feel good.” He jumped up, ran to the bathroom, and slammed the door behind him.

I heard him retch and closed my hands into fists. I met Peter, Carl, and Esther in the hallway.

“How could you not tell him?” I asked Peter. “How could you let him find out this way?”

“What way? What’s happening?” Peter looked stricken, and I almost melted.

Then I remembered how much of a prick he was and hardened my heart all over again. “He’s seeing the dead. Eddie’s pulling them to him. They’re trapped, begging Emmett for help, but he can’t do it. He can’t help them because of Eddie. And Yvonne… he saw Yvonne. I have to go. I have to stop this.”

I ran down the stairs and grabbed my jacket and the dagger. I didn’t know what else to take because I had no idea what I was up against. I rushed out the door to Gabe’s car, only then realising that I was being followed.

“No!” I shouted. “Stay with Emmett, Peter. And, Carl, you’re needed here.”

“I’m not needed anywhere,” Carl said. “But I know Eddie. I’m going. If I’m there, maybe you won’t let him kill you.”

“Don’t patronise me. I’m doing my best here.”

He hugged me. “I know. But I’m still going.”

“Me, too,” Peter said. “You reckon we were all led to each other for a reason. Well, it’s time to find out what Eddie knows.”

“We could probably use more people,” Gabe said. “
Phoenix
and those werewolves, for a start.”

I shook my head. “He’s already lost some werewolves to this. And if it goes wrong, we need people who can keep the peace. Let’s just scope out the situation. If it looks like we need help, we’ll call for them to come. Okay?”

Gabe, Peter, and Carl nodded.

Esther came running out of the house. “I’m coming. Val and the twins are watching over Emmett, so there’s no excuse for me not to come. I need to see this through.”

I sighed heavily. “Only if you agree to leave if it gets out of hand.”

“Of course,” she said. “As long as you agree to the same thing.”

I grinned at her, and we hugged it out. It felt like a goodbye, and I wasn’t sure if any of us really thought we would make it back.

The journey to the children’s home was tense and quiet, but I was oddly relaxed. There were no unknown enemies after us anymore. Everything was upfront and loud and brash, but we knew who to expect. Eddie wouldn’t kill us. He liked us. Probably.

When we drove up to the home, the gates were wide open, and the magical barrier was gone. The building was lit up, but the lines of lit candles on the grass were what drew my attention. They appeared to circle the house, crossing over each other to make patterns I couldn’t work out from the car. Then I realised figures were standing within the walls.

“Witches?” Esther asked.

Gabe shrugged. “Likely.”

We drove onto the grounds and the gates slammed shut behind us. The barrier rose, and I had that sinking feeling again.

“It’s
Marina
,” I said. “Eddie wouldn’t do this. We can convince Eddie. We just need to shut
Marina
up, right?”

Nobody answered me, and I slumped down in my seat until the car stopped moving. We all got out of the car slowly. When I stood on the pavement, movement in the distance caught my attention.

“He’s up there,” I said, pointing.

I saw two figures huddled together, and I ran toward them. The rest of my friends followed.

Eddie was such a small man that he didn’t look as though he could harm a fly, never mind the world.
Marina
drew the eye, though. She had a presence that couldn’t be ignored. Her glasses were on the grass, crushed as if they had been carelessly stood on. Multi-coloured streaks ran through her hair, which blew freely in the breeze. I remembered the first time I had seen her: I thought her mousy and timid. There was nothing left of that witch.

I called out to Eddie, and he turned, smiling. Relief poured over me until
Marina
held up a hand and flicked her wrist. I felt as though I had just walked into a spider web made of steel.

“The fuck,” I tried to say, but my speech was muffled. I couldn’t turn my head to look at the others, but I could sense their fear.

I was angry. It was just plain rude to use magic on somebody like that. I tried to move, but my legs wouldn’t work. There was nothing around me, or at least, nothing visible, so I tried to push out with my other senses. I felt it properly then, the magic tying me down. I pressed against it, pushed violently, and as I reached another level of existence, I moved past the magic and freed myself, falling over with the force of the momentum. But I hadn’t taken two steps when another barrier halted my progress.

Eddie chuckled. “Didn’t I tell you?” he said. “She’s an untapped source, that one.”

He kept moving around, lighting candles and moving objects. I glanced around and saw ghostly figures surrounding us. The souls that Eddie kept tied to himself were nothing compared to the hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead souls wandering around on the grass, all chained together. All chained to Eddie Brogan. They screamed soundlessly, their arms reaching out to me as if I could save them. I saw familiar faces and squeezed my eyes shut.

“What are you doing?” I whispered. “Eddie, stop this.” I glanced back at my friends and saw that Esther was shifting, slowly but surely. Her magic was fighting against
Marina
’s, who didn’t seem to notice. The others were still unable to even struggle.

“There’s nothing for you to worry about,” he said. “You want to meet your parents, don’t you? Well, now you might.”

I stared at him, thinking of that one photograph I had of my parents. Tempting, but the dead didn’t belong with the living.

“She won’t live long enough for that,”
Marina
scoffed.

“We’ll see,” he muttered, running his palm across a box.

I sensed the dark magic within, beating as if it fought to escape, and I knew his book was in there. “We can talk about this, Eddie. We can work this out. It doesn’t have to come to this. Nothing can be worth this.”

“If that boy died,” he said in a quiet voice, “would you rest until you found a way to get him back?”

“You can’t mess with the balance,” I said. “But you did, didn’t you? You knew about Mrs. Yaga, somehow you knew, and you organised her death. You helped them hurt us.”

“Oh, pet, don’t rattle yourself. She lived a long time, and she made her choices. She gave up her neutrality and interfered. That’s against the rules. Besides, she was a hag. How many must she have killed to live this long? The crones and their counterparts are all evil, as far as I’m concerned, standing aside and watching bad things happen. As bad as the gods, they are. Worse, because they know more of the consequences. Even now, if they really wanted to stop me, they could. But where are they?” He lifted his head to shout, “Where are you now?”

“Eddie, please—”

“You know my wife,” he said abruptly. “Maeve. When she told me she was pregnant with our child, it was the happiest time of my life. But the fae went to war, leaving death in their wake, and nobody would help me. What’s the point of being a servant of the gods when the gods won’t help you? Won’t give you back what you need to survive? To experience happiness. I would have had a daughter, you know. Sometimes I think… well, never mind that now. I lost what I lost, and they told me there was no way to change that, so I waited. I played the good servant, played the roles they gave me, and they didn’t think twice about making me their keeper. I kept their magic safe, and I tried to find ways to get her back.”

“That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”

His laugh was scornful. “Says who? The gods? The ancient beings? You and I both know their arrogance is always their downfall. They make the rules, and for what? I made myself a promise, and I intend on keeping it.”

“She doesn’t want to come, Eddie. She wants to rest in peace.”

“No! I wasn’t disgraced for nothing, Ava. I found a way to bring her back, but it wasn’t enough, so I kept trying, kept all of those souls because I knew they would be useful one day. I’m a patient man, more patient than anyone I’ve ever met, but now I’m so close to the end, I can taste it. I don’t want to wait a moment longer.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to do what the gods themselves couldn’t do. I’m going to bring life to the dead.”

“Listen to yourself,” I pleaded. “How can you do what they couldn’t?”

“All it takes is the right kind of sacrifice,” Eddie said. “I need the right people, the right power, the right deaths, and then Maeve can have the life she was meant to lead.”

“Nobody is meant to come back, Eddie. Don’t you understand that it won’t be just her?”

“Oh, I know what I’m doing. Others will return. Other things will be freed. The gates will open, and a flood of darkness will shroud the land. It’ll be worth it, Ava. For her.”

“And if she dies again? If the darkness you bring kills everything?”

“Then we’ll die together,” he said. “And so will everyone else. Before we met, I thought you would be the one to open the gates.”

“Then why did you look for another one like me?” I demanded.

“Ah.” He smiled. “Why can’t I keep a secret from you, Ava? This old heart learned to care once again. For you, for Peter, even for Carl. I saw my children fully grown, not ghosts or dreams any longer. I began to imagine that you would want to help me, but everything is so black and white for you, Ava. Right or wrong. No in between. Still, I didn’t like the idea of harm coming to you, so I found another, but she slipped through my fingers. I thought it would be much simpler, but
Marina
showed me another way. A neater way.” He glanced at the building behind him. “With a little help.”