He might have once been an angel of light, but there was nothing but a deluded insanity about Olivier now.
Exiles still held onto their origins even after they had abandoned their rightful place. The war between light and dark was eternal, despite the current truce. If not for the Scripture’s promise of Grigori destruction, there would be no way the two sides would tolerate each other.
Phoenix’s grip tightened again around Olivier’s neck. Distracted by this task, his defences slipped away and some of his emotion leaked into me.
I slapped a hand over my mouth, falling back into Spence with the intensity of Phoenix’s… hatred. It seeped into me like poison – so strong my eyes watered and my lungs constricted.
It was hatred for Olivier. For himself. For what they were doing. And impossible control. It was taking everything he had not to kill Olivier right there.
I trembled, experiencing just a taste of what Phoenix carried with him. Spence steadied me.
Oh, Phoenix. What have you done?
Sill holding Olivier, he looked down the platform, as if he could see me. I inhaled sharply and watched his eyes close. An outpour of sorrow flooded through me, as if somehow he was answering my unspoken question. And in that moment, I wanted to cry for him.
Oh, God help us.
Olivier laughed. ‘You really thought Lilith was going to be grateful to you, didn’t you? You were a fool not to realise she’d be so disgusted to find you had the Grigori list all this time and hadn’t even used it!’
‘Be very careful – I can rip out your heart with barely a thought,’ responded Phoenix.
‘Yes, but everyone would know it was you and after having Gressil killed, killing me …’ He shook his head, smiling maniacally. ‘She’ll kill you. I’m too useful to her and you know it.’
Phoenix tightened his hold again but then, as if realising there was nothing more he could do released Olivier, pushing him to the ground.
‘Once this is done, I am going to pull every organ from your body before I start on your eyes and heart, just so you can watch.’
Something flashed in Olivier’s eyes and for the first time he backed away from Phoenix and stayed on the ground.
‘I have work to do,’ Olivier growled.
Phoenix turned to the child, his face emotionless, but I felt the trickle of concern he’d been working so hard to hide as he lifted the limp body from the ground. ‘I’ll take this one back to the estate. Lilith wants you to collect another one tonight. She’s moved up the schedule.’ He handed Olivier a piece of paper, glancing in my direction before continuing. ‘The building is on East 79th, between Lexington and Park. I suggest you don’t delay.’
‘What?’ Olivier scoffed. ‘You’re not waiting for me?’
Phoenix smirked. ‘I’m sure you can manage to get back to the highlands on your own.’ With that he walked towards our end of the platform, his back to Olivier and, before he took off with the wind, he nodded right at me.
Is Phoenix giving us information? Can we trust it?
Olivier went off in the other direction and Spence and I didn’t wait around either. As soon as the coast was clear we ran back the way we’d come, racing along the tunnel and up the ladder leading back out into the park at City Hall. As soon as we were above ground I called Lincoln.
‘Where are you?’ was his answer.
I kept pace with Spence.
‘City Hall.’
‘I’m on the way,’ he said, I could hear him running too.
‘No! Wait! Where are you?’
‘Southeast corner of Central Park.’
Shit. I didn’t know this city well enough.
I shoved the phone towards Spence. ‘Talk to Lincoln. He’s at the southeast corner of Central Park.’
Spence grabbed the phone. ‘You’re closest,’ he told Lincoln and then told him the address of where Olivier was headed before tossing the phone back to me.
‘He said he’ll go there with Griffin and that we should go back to the Academy and wait for them,’ Spence explained.
But Olivier is going after another child.
We couldn’t take any chances. I’d already stood by and watched one little boy be taken.
‘Not going to happen. We’ll meet them there just in case,’ I said, throwing my arm out to hail a taxi. I shoved the phone in my pocket. ‘What the hell, right? It’s not like we can get in any more trouble tonight.’
‘So true,’ Spence said, clapping a hand on my back as I jumped in the car. ‘It’s an outlook I often take in life.’
When the taxi pulled up we saw Lincoln and Griffin standing outside a building. They were talking to a young woman, who held a little girl, wrapped in a blanket, asleep in her arms. The woman was crying.
We headed towards them, Lincoln spotting me straight away. I could almost see him relax as I felt myself do the same. In that instant I knew that whatever my concerns had been earlier tonight, they were meaningless. He might be mad at me for not doing what he said, but it was more important that we were both okay.
Spence and I stopped a discreet distance away, not wanting to interrupt, but close enough to hear what they were saying.
The girl must have been the one Olivier was after. Griffin and Lincoln had already fought him off – I could see their fresh bruises – but neither of them seemed satisfied.
They were telling the mother that she and her daughter were at risk in their apartment and would be taken somewhere secure tonight. Tomorrow they would be moved to a safe-house. Griffin was pushing a lot of truth into his words to get past her disbelief and uncertainty about not contacting the police.
Another car arrived and Rainer stepped out, holding the door open for the woman and her daughter. She glanced at me briefly and then away again as she followed them into the back seat wordlessly. I couldn’t read whether she was pissed with me or not but my next training session was only a few hours away. I’d find out soon enough.
Griffin and Lincoln joined us. Griffin gave me a disapproving up-and-down. ‘Fun night?’
I put my hands on my hips to cover my flush of guilt and focused on the problem at hand. ‘We discovered a maze of glamoured tunnels connected to the subway under the city. And we found Phoenix in them, too.’
‘Are you okay?’ Lincoln asked, his face blank, despite the tension in his stance.
I nodded.
Griffin looked from me to Spence.
‘What she said, boss,’ Spence said.
I didn’t need to look at him to know he was smiling.
‘You get him?’ Spence asked.
Griffin rubbed a tired hand over his face in typical Griff fashion. ‘No. He actually ran. First time for everything, I suppose.’
‘He’d already been shaken up by Phoenix,’ I said. No wonder Griffin was keen to get the young family to a safe place. Olivier would be back.
‘Did you get the kid?’ Lincoln asked.
I shook my head. ‘It was too risky. Phoenix took him, but he’s still alive. I think Evelyn was right – they’re collecting the children for some sort of mass execution.’
We stood for a few beats, all of us speechless. Things went to another level entirely when you were talking about innocent kids being slaughtered.
Griffin spoke up first. ‘You three really landed yourselves in it tonight. Josephine’s probably allocated a cell for the two of you down with your parents by now.’
‘Griff, you might want to hold off on the lecture until we’ve told you everything,’ Spence said, oh so casual, milking the fact that we’d come away from our night with some of the best intel in months.
It really did help, having a pro rule-breaker on one’s side.
Griffin nodded, looking around. He was a leader but he wasn’t averse to rule-breaking either. ‘We can’t talk here. A team’s on the way to watch the building in case Olivier or any other exiles come back.’ He passed what looked like a black credit card to Lincoln. ‘Take them back to Ascension. I’ll meet you there once
I’ve handed over.’
Lincoln was already hailing a taxi.
‘Why Ascension?’ I asked Lincoln when we were in the car.
‘You’ll see.’ His body was tense as he focused on the window.
‘We had to follow him, Linc,’ I said, assuming he was about to launch a verbal attack at me.
‘I know,’ he said, and then, as if he couldn’t fight it any longer, he grabbed my hand and pulled it into his lap. He exhaled, his tension seeming to ease.
When I looked up, confused by his response, he shook his head and gave me a knowing smile. ‘I wasn’t keen on you tracking Olivier. I thought it could be a trap, Phoenix or Lilith luring you in. But when you told me he had a kid …’ he shrugged. ‘You did the right thing.’
I scrolled through my phone and selected the unopened text message I’d ignored after I’d told him Olivier had a kid.
Be careful.
There was no stopping the flutter in my heart or my hand that was squeezing his back, and not letting go.
Later that night, or rather morning, I discovered that Ascension was one of the only Grigori places over which the Assembly didn’t have control and exactly why Lincoln had hidden behind a mask in one of the club’s exclusive private rooms.
They were sound-proof. And free from prying eyes.
Ever since we’d arrived in New York, while I’d been stuck within Academy walls, Griffin and Lincoln had been using the privacy offered by the club to discuss all of their theories and plans. It turned out they’d been rather busy.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
‘Evil draws men together.’
Aristotle
Determining whether or not Rainer was upset with me proved more difficult than I’d imagined. Judging it by the fact she still turned up at my room at 5 a.m., devoid of sympathy and clearly expecting me to be on my feet and running then, yeah, she was pissed.
But she had turned up.
I decided that punishment by way of hard-core training was preferable to cold-shoulder treatment. Seeing Phoenix, although troubling, had served as a solid reminder of what lay on my horizon. I needed to be ready. Plus, as strange as it was, I knew the Grigori testing was important and a desire to be accepted by the Assembly had kind of crept up on me.
Then again, when Rainer carved another wound into my upper arm, it was hard to remember all of that.
‘Jesus!’ I exclaimed, twisting to see the damage.
‘You’re sloppy,’ she said, whipping her katana through the air in front of me then pointing it towards my arm. ‘You keep dropping your right arm.’
For a nano-second!
‘Might be because it has no blood left in it,’ I mumbled.
Rainer shook her head. ‘You can’t afford to make a mistake, ever. Not if you plan on living. Start again, from the top. Drills first and then we fight.’
I swallowed. My mouth was parched and my body hurt in ways it was not supposed to, but I nodded, pushed the pain back and carried on through the monotonous and repetitive exercises. I wasn’t sure if Rainer’s training techniques left me feeling more like the Karate Kid or Sarah Connor.
The next time we fought I kept my arms up and ready. Our katanas clashed as we went at each other like feral animals. Fast fights were always preferable, and the only way to ensure that was with a fierce offensive. I wanted to be my best, to be my strongest. I had all the motivation in the world.
A rare opening presented itself; Rainer had made a slight error in the angling of her body. It wouldn’t give me a kill shot but if I was lucky it should be enough to take her down.
I made my move, got a foot to her leg and followed with my blade, just nicking her thigh.
Rainer righted herself quickly, her eyes now alight with a fighter’s intent.
I planted my feet and braced for the attack, but instead… she smiled.
‘What?’ I asked, wiping my sweaty brow.
‘That’s more like it,’ she said, giving me a nod of respect.
It was the first time she’d done that and it had a surprisingly deep effect on me.
‘You fight well with swords. You’re best with a dagger, but then swords. You should remember that and always be armed. You can fight with bare hands when needed but you’re a technician and most lethal with tools.’
I nodded, agreeing. ‘I’ll remember.’
Stepping forward, Rainer put a hand on my shoulder. ‘We both know you hold back, Violet. The question is, how much?’
She didn’t wait for my answer and I was grateful, since I didn’t have one.
Rainer started to pack up for the day and when I started to help she put up a hand. ‘Go. You’ve got time before your classes start and I hear you have somewhere else to be.’ She gave me a knowing look.
She was right.
Not that I need the reminder.
Last night at Ascension I’d agreed it was time I visited Evelyn. I’d been putting it off, worried about what to say to her, and to Dad. But we needed her information and Griffin seemed convinced, despite his many visits, that Evelyn would tell me more than she’d revealed to him. I was surprised Griffin had obviously confided in Rainer. She might have been mentoring me, but she was still a member of the Assembly.
‘Okay,’ I said.
‘Violet …’ Rainer continued as I collected my things. Her voice was different now. No longer my teacher. ‘I know that you and Lincoln are… Like Nyla and Rudyard were.’
I looked at my feet.
‘I miss them both so much, but even now… I envy what they had.’
I blinked. ‘What do you mean?’
She shrugged. ‘All of it. They were much more powerful than they ever let others see – always worried it could endanger them if the strongest among us realised their potential. As bonded soulmates their union meant they could draw on one another’s powers when they needed to. They transformed from two good fighters to one incredible warrior.’ Her voice grew quiet. ‘If they’d wanted to, they would’ve been sitting in Wil’s and my seats at the Assembly, but they refused.’
It didn’t surprise me that Nyla and Rudyard had declined places on the Assembly. It wasn’t their kind of thing.
‘Incredible, but not incredible enough,’ I said. ‘Rudyard is gone and Nyla is… lost, and everyone who loved them is left with the awful reality.’
‘That’s true,’ Rainer agreed.
I hitched my training bag on my shoulder and made for the door.
‘One other thing is true as well, though,’ she continued.
‘What?’
‘Rudyard and Nyla were nowhere near as powerful individually as you and Lincoln. Not even close.’
I paused and turned back to her. ‘The risk is too great, Rainer. Power isn’t everything.’
She fixed a gaze on me that sent a shiver down my spine. ‘Until it is.’
I didn’t respond.
She couldn’t possibly understand what it was like knowing that you could bring about the end to the person you loved. Only Nyla and Rudyard could understand that and they weren’t here. Rainer had the luxury of being able to look at it from the outside. She’d been around for hundreds of years, seen Grigori come and go, all simply casualties of war. She probably wouldn’t hesitate to use the added power that came with being bonded soulmates, but then, she wasn’t taking into account all of the other realities that were a part of it. She couldn’t begin to imagine.
Despite Rainer’s encouragement, I still had my doubts – and anxieties – about visiting Evelyn and Dad. But as I loitered in the halls I thought about all the reasons why this was important – why confiding in Evelyn and having her opinion could make all the difference. In the end, it was the image of the child I’d seen Phoenix take off with that forced my decision. We were running out of time.
It was a task just to get through all of the security on the lower level until I was permitted into the holding cells.
I’m not sure what I’d expected, maybe jail cells, but Evelyn and Dad had been gi
ven something more like a small apartment. They had been allowed to share the same space – two single beds, which had been shoved close together. They had a small kitchenette with a good supply of fruit and vegetables – probably prison enough for Dad, who preferred his vegetables to come in a Chinese takeaway box and covered in oyster sauce.
The only thing that screamed lock-down was that the entire area was contained within some type of barely visible force field that reminded me of the liquid-like wall that divided Phoenix and me in my dream. I could see everything except for a small cubicle I assumed concealed their bathroom. At least they’d been given some privacy.
I walked down the narrow white corridor, alongside their cell. Dad and Evelyn were sitting at a small oval table, playing cards. They both looked up and saw me at the same time and I was struck by the weirdness of it all. The Academy, Grigori, Hell, Lilith, Lincoln, Phoenix, the Scriptures – and there were my parents, playing blackjack in an impenetrable box. It took me a moment to realise I was laughing hysterically.
Maybe they thought it would be good therapy, or were just pleased to see me, but within seconds, the parents I’d been so nervous about seeing for the last two and a half weeks burst out laughing too.
Just what every kid wants, right? Happy family moments.
As we all sobered, one of the guards patted me down, taking my dagger from me. He looked at my wrist markings with a puzzled expression. Normally, they would ask Grigori to remove their wristbands.
I turned my wrists up and smiled. ‘Sorry. Permanent.’
He grunted and then surprised me by opening a door in the force field.
‘Is it solid?’ I asked.
He shrugged. ‘In a way. But it’s charged by Grigori power, which makes it more, and less.’
‘Like the walkways?’
He gestured me into the room. ‘Similar,’ he said, shutting down the line of questioning. He wasn’t going to tell me any more.
‘Ten minutes,’ the guard said, with a look that said he’d be timing me. Griffin had called in a bunch of favours to arrange the full-access visitation.