Their cab stopped at the foot of a staircase on St. Nicholas Avenue. On the hill above sat Sylvan Terrace. The quaint yellow houses were all dark but for one at the end of the lane. Leah led the way, bounding up the stoop and pounding on the door. Chandra answered.
“Hey,” Leah said, pushing past her. “We’re here to get Beau.”
Chandra almost licked her lips, like a fox that’s just had a rabbit hop right into its den. Then she caught sight of Haven. Her jaw dropped, and she rushed back inside the house.
“Phoebe!” Chandra shouted as she sprinted toward the council room where the Horae held their meetings. Haven, Iain, and Leah followed. All of the Horae were there. Haven counted twelve females in white robes and one brightly dressed young man. Calum Daniels was with them. He stumbled backward, almost falling onto the logs that were burning in the fireplace. Virginia Morrow caught sight of her son and swooned. One of her sisters helped her into a chair.
“Haven!” Even Phoebe’s face was ashen. “What are you doing here? Where is the magos?”
“He’s back at the cemetery,” Haven said. “He said to tell you hello. He’ll be catching up with you later.”
“I don’t understand,” Phoebe said. “How did you escape from the mausoleum?”
“Adam had a key that opened the door from the inside,” Haven told her. “He let me leave, and he stayed behind.”
The Horae’s whispers filled the room with a soft hissing, like steam from a kettle that’s just begun to boil.
“The magos sacrificed himself for you?” Vera asked. “And you allowed him to do so?”
“Yes, but Leah can set him free whenever she likes,” Haven said. “And if she does, Adam knows exactly where to find you. I told him everything.”
Phoebe’s nostrils flared, and her lips curled back from her teeth. “How could you let this happen?” she shrieked at Chandra. “You were supposed to make sure that the tomb could never be opened. All three of them should be dead!”
“We’ll take care of them now,” Cleo answered for Chandra. “They’re all here. They’ve made it easy for us. We can cremate the bodies in the furnace.”
“You can do what?” Virginia Morrow demanded, pushing past two of her sisters to reach Phoebe. Haven recognized the rage on the woman’s face. Phoebe was lucky there weren’t any Parma hams within reach.
The other Horae were whispering once more.
“Kill the snake goddess?”
“We’d be cursed!”
“They’ve lost their minds!”
“Our guests cannot be allowed to live,” Phoebe said, ignoring the whispers while she tried to reason with Virginia. “Any one of them could set the magos free. I know this is painful for you, sister, but we must all sacrifice for the cause.”
Leah sidled up to the warring women as if she were joining two friends at a cocktail party. “You know what they say about sacrificing, don’t you, Phoebe? It’s so much more fun when other people get to do it.” Then she addressed Virginia Morrow. “You knew all along that the Horae would have to kill Haven, didn’t you?”
“No!” Virginia insisted. “We never intended to kill anyone! We planned to lock the magos in a bank vault and destroy the buildings above. Haven could never have set him free—so there was no reason to harm her. But Iain made it impossible to use the vault—and the tomb could be opened at any time. None of us wanted Haven to die, but Phoebe said it was necessary in order to keep the magos imprisoned.”
Leah shook her head in disgust. “And you didn’t realize that your decision would have consequences? You thought Phoebe could get rid of Haven without killing Iain too? And what did you think she was going to do with me after I showed up?”
“Is this true, Phoebe? How long have you been planning to murder my son?” The volume of Virginia’s voice was steadily rising. “That was never part of our arrangement!”
“I promised you the Morrow fortune in exchange for your help,” Phoebe countered. “You didn’t seem to care which means I used to procure it. You should have told me you wouldn’t want to see Iain harmed.”
“Some things don’t need to be said!” Virginia screamed with such force that Haven nearly covered her ears.
“Aunt Virginia.” Calum Daniels edged Leah out of the way and stepped between the two old women before they could come to blows. “I’m afraid Mother is right. We must all do what’s necessary for the greater good.”
“We are not responsible for the greater good,” Virginia said, as though she were teaching a small child a lesson. “That is the snake goddess’s purview. Do you think we should kill her as well, Calum? Do you have any idea what might happen if we were to commit such a crime?”
“We must do whatever is necessary,” Calum repeated solemnly.
“Your mother would be the first to agree with you,” Haven told him. “She was willing to sacrifice you as well, Calum. You see, I came here after you were arrested. I threatened to have Adam kill you if Beau wasn’t returned. Phoebe told me to go ahead and order your murder. She didn’t even blink.”
“You’re lying!” Calum appealed to his mother. “Tell me she’s lying!”
“Haven is speaking the truth,” Virginia said somberly as Phoebe grasped for an excuse. “We were all here in this room when your mother made the decision to let you die. She’s never known how lucky she is to have you. She was given the gift of guiding you through your first incarnation, but she has badly abused that privilege.”
“My first incarnation?” Calum sputtered. “But . . .”
“Phoebe has misled you since the day you were born. This is your first life, Calum.”
“Mother?” Calum said, the last of his confidence crumbling.
Haven had to look away. No matter what Calum had done, she could only pity him now. Haven remembered how proud he’d been of his previous lives. Calum’s whole identity had been built out of lies, and his world had imploded with a single sentence. Haven couldn’t condemn someone who had never had a chance to know who he was.
“Don’t listen to Virginia, Calum, she’s always half drunk,” Phoebe said, finally launching her own defense. “She’s been jealous of us since—”
“That’s enough!” Vera seemed to grow as Phoebe shriveled. “Virginia hasn’t had a drink since she arrived in New York. Every word she’s uttered is true, Calum. My sisters and I agree that it’s time you should know.” Haven noticed that seven of the Horae were now standing behind Vera. A new order was forming before her eyes.
Calum sniffed, trying his best to maintain his dignity. “I never did any of this for her, anyway. It was a business arrangement. If I helped Mother with her little plot, I would get to run the Ouroboros Society once Adam was gone.”
“No, Calum,” Vera corrected him. “Phoebe never intended to let a nineteen-year-old boy lead the Society. That was yet another lie.”
Calum turned on his mother. “You promised,” he whined. “You would never have known about Owen if I hadn’t dragged him to see you! And it was my idea to use him to bring Haven’s friend to New York! She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me! I did everything you asked me to do! I let Beau stay at my house! When the cops showed up, I even let them arrest me just so you could keep him hidden!”
“You failed, Calum,” Phoebe sneered. “You were too weak to see the plan through.”
“Blame yourself, not your son,” Vera said. “There was never a chance that your scheme would succeed. Chandra and Cleo may do whatever you tell them, but the rest of us wouldn’t have allowed you to murder Iain or the snake goddess.”
“Don’t you see?!” Phoebe yelled in desperation. “This is all his doing! The magos is winning! He’s driving us apart! This is what he wanted all along! He’s planned all of this from the very beginning.”
“The magos is locked up in a mausoleum in Brooklyn,” Vera pointed out.
“If you’re not careful, you’ll join him,” Leah warned. “The way I see it, Phoebe, you’re worse than Adam is. At the very least, I
think it’s time you ladies looked for another leader.”
“The snake goddess has spoken,” Vera announced. “Now that the magos is locked away, we should take the opportunity to reorganize. Unless there are objections, I will assume leadership of the Horae. From this day forward, we will not stoop to employ the tactics of our enemies. Phoebe, Chandra, and Cleo, your rights are suspended. You may rejoin us in your next incarnations.”
“You can’t do this, Vera! You’ve always been too fainthearted to lead! You’ll let them set the magos free!” Phoebe raged. “You can’t trust any of them!”
“I trust the snake goddess. She never chooses sides,” Vera stated. “You may leave whenever you like,” she told her guests.
“But what about Beau?” Haven demanded.
“Where is the boy?” Vera asked Phoebe.
“You won’t find him,” Phoebe said with a nasty smirk. She still had one last trick up her sleeve. “He’ll be dead before sunrise. If he isn’t already.”
“He’s in the bank vault under Lenox Avenue,” Calum Daniels announced. “They had to hide him after the police raided my building. You’ll need to get there fast. The combination is . . .”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
If Iain hadn’t grabbed Haven and thrown her into the back of a cab, she would have run the whole way to Lenox Avenue. She cursed herself for not checking the vault earlier. It had been prepared for Adam, who needed neither water nor air. Haven rested her head on her knees and prayed that they’d make it to the vault in time. No one in the taxi spoke. It was as if they were saving both their breath and their energy for Beau.
The neon sign in the middle of the block was still flashing its red-and-white warning, but the buildings had all been prepared for demolition. Next to the storefront church sat the sad remains of a neighborhood bank, with ads showing smiling, satisfied customers taped to its door. Leah was still staring up at the neon sign when Iain kicked in a sheet of graffiti-covered plywood that covered a broken window. Haven squeezed in through the opening and searched for the stairs.
There were none—just a hole in the floor with a rope dangling inside. She slid down to the building’s basement without waiting for her friends. At the bottom of the hole, she found an enormous vault with a circular door.
“You here to see the boy?” a voice asked, and Haven nearly jumped out of her skin. Two women had been sleeping in a corner of the room. One had woken up and was rubbing her eyes.
“You know?”
“He showed up yesterday with two people. They left him inside there.”
“Was he okay?”
“A bit beat up, I guess, but other than that he seemed fine.”
“You knew that someone’s been in this vault for a whole day, and you didn’t call the cops?” Haven demanded, amazed that the woman could be so blasé.
“It wasn’t like he was fighting when they put him in there. And those two ladies said that if I didn’t mind my own business they wouldn’t let me and my friend sleep down here when it snows,” the woman said. “Sorry, but I have bigger worries than some dumb Southern boy who likes to hide in old bank vaults.”
“Did these ladies happen to tell you that this building is about to be demolished?” Haven asked. “Did they tell you that you need to find somewhere else to stay or you’ll be buried in a mound of rubble?”
The woman stared at Haven for a moment. “They neglected to mention that. So how are you going to get him out, anyway?” She seemed curious, now, nothing more.
“I have the combination.”
“Hell, that’s only half the battle,” the woman announced as she dragged herself up off the floor. “If you want, I can show you how they opened it. Didn’t look all that easy.”
Just then, Iain and Leah slid down the rope.
“Who’s she?” Iain asked.
“Who’re they?” the woman responded, gazing at Leah, who looked otherworldly in the glow of the flashlights.
“These are my friends, Iain and Leah. This nice lady . . .” She paused for the name.
“Ramona,” the woman offered reluctantly.
“Ramona is going to help me open the vault,” Haven said.
“Will Ramona be getting compensated for her efforts?” Ramona asked.
“I’ll give you my last twenty bucks,” Leah said, rustling in her pocket for a wadded-up bill.
“It’s got to be around midnight,” Ramona said, checking an imaginary watch. “That means this is overtime. I get time and a half.”
Iain dug into his coat. “All I have is a five.”
“Then you owe me five more,” Ramona said, snatching the bill from his fingers. “You look like you’re good for it. Let’s get to work.”
She showed Haven how to enter the combination and which wheels to turn. When they pulled the door open, a whoosh of hot air escaped the vault.
“Good God, it smells nasty in there!” Ramona noted. “Sorry,” she added unconvincingly when Leah shot her a look. “Well, at least he was warm! I’m lucky to still have my toes!”
Inside, Beau was lying on his side, his face to a metal wall and his curly blond hair wet with sweat. A reeking slop bucket sat in the opposite corner, surrounded by candy bar wrappers. An empty bottle of water was the only other object in the cramped little room.
“Beau!” Haven screamed as she slid across the metal floor and knelt with a hand on his back. She could feel his chest rising and falling. “Beau,” she said, giving him a shake. “Beau, please wake up!”
“What the hell?” Beau mumbled. He rolled over and shielded his bruised eyes from the glare of the flashlights. “Haven? Is that you?”
“Beau!” Haven nearly collapsed with relief. “Are you all right?”
“Haven.” Beau blinked furiously, still blinded by the light. “God, I was just having the worst dream. There was this evil goddamned little girl and she . . . Wait. Is he here? Did you bring him?”
“Iain’s right outside,” Haven assured him. “Leah, too. They’re going to help me get you out of here.”
Iain stepped inside the vault. “I’m here, Beau,” he said.
“No, not Iain.” Beau seemed confused. “Adam.”
“Why would Adam be with me?” Haven wiped her tears on her coat sleeve.
“You told me to wait inside! You said I needed to hide and surprise him so you could lock him up in the vault. You think I’d sweat my ass off in some metal box if I thought it would all be for nothing?”
“I told you to wait inside?” Haven looked up at Iain. He shook his head in confusion. “When did I say that?”
“Yesterday, goddammit! Have you lost your mind, Haven?”
“Beau,” Haven said gently. “I haven’t spoken to you in weeks. I’ve been searching all over for you. I came back from Italy to find you.”
“Of course we haven’t spoken. Adam’s got all the phones bugged. You e-mailed me.”
“He’s hallucinating,” Haven whispered to Iain. “We need to—”
“Goddammit, I am not hallucinating!” Beau barked.
“Hey, you guys?” Ramona was standing in the doorway to the vault, her eyes wide. “You better come out. Something’s wrong with that redheaded girl.”
“Who’s she? And what the hell is Leah doing here?” Beau croaked. “Hey!”
HAVEN AND IAIN were already outside in the basement. Leah lay on the floor, her limbs twitching uncontrollably. Her eyes had rolled back so far that only the whites were visible. Her lips spelled out silent words.
“What’s happening to her?” Ramona asked. “Is she sick? You want me to run and fetch a doctor?”
“No,” Haven said, reaching down for Leah’s hand. “A doctor won’t help. She’s seeing the future.”
“That child’s giving prophecy?” Ramona asked, awestruck.
“Yes,” Haven told her. Ramona dropped to her knees, her head bowed and her fingers laced in prayer. Her friend woke and shuffled over to join her. They waited, scarcely moving, until Leah was still an
d her lips sealed.
“Leah,” Haven whispered. “Are you back? What did you see?”
Leah’s eyes popped open, and her lungs filled with air. “It ain’t over,” she said.
“What in the hell is going on?” Haven looked up to find Beau watching over the scene.
“The plague is still coming,” Leah continued. “We haven’t stopped it. We’ve only made it more certain.”
“But how?” Haven groaned. “I’ve done everything I could. Adam is locked away in the mausoleum. You’re the only one with a key.”
“What?” Beau interjected. “But I thought . . .”
Iain put a hand on Beau’s broad shoulder. “We’ll hear your story next,” he promised him. “Just listen for now.”
“I was sure we’d put an end to it all,” Haven continued. “The Ouroboros Society will be shut down. Halcyon Hall will have to close. The kids will all go home.”
“I think that may be the problem,” Leah said. “They can’t go back to their ordinary lives. They know who they are now, and they know what they can do. But they’re still so young. They need to be taught that their power can be used as a force for good.”
“You’re saying Halcyon Hall has to stay open?”
“The closer this future comes to being certain, the more I can see of it. Now that Adam’s gone, Milo won’t have to leave New York. And we’re not the only ones who know about him. Pretty soon, someone’s going to start putting the wrong ideas in his head. She’ll have Milo convince the Halcyon Hall kids that they need to seize power by any means necessary.”
“She? Other than us, who knows about Milo?”
“I recognized a woman in this vision. I’m pretty sure it was that girl Chandra.”
“Chand—” Beau started to exclaim before Iain gave him another reassuring pat on the shoulder.
“I get it now,” Haven said. “Chandra knows exactly what the Halcyon Hall kids can do. She heard the prophecy too, which means we’ve even given her a plan. She’s going to use Milo to seize control—of the Horae and the whole city. The only way to stop her is to save the Society and Halcyon Hall.”