I nodded and watched as he headed towards Griffin without so much as another glance in Jase’s direction.
So much for salsa.
‘This is to do with that stuff you can’t tell me about that everyone else, including my sister, seems to know about, right?’
I sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Jase. My life … My life has changed a lot this year. What Lincoln said was really rude, but …’
‘Not untrue?’
I swallowed, hating myself. ‘Right.’
‘Then explain to me why you two aren’t together.’
Sensational question.
‘It’s complicated.’
He shifted a little closer to me and put a hand on my shoulder. ‘Vi, if you’re frightened of him, I can help.’
My eyes widened. ‘No, no, it’s not that. Lincoln would never hurt me.’ That was half the problem.
Jase shook his head. ‘Whatever you’re caught up in, we can get you out of it.’
I smiled, sad for him, sad for me. ‘No, you can’t, Jase. And that time has passed. This is who I am now and our lives – yours and mine – don’t cross over. I’m sorry.’
With that, I kissed him on the cheek and walked away, hoping I’d done enough to keep him from coming after me again. I didn’t want to put him in harm’s way – it was bad enough I’d already involved Steph.
Lincoln was waiting in his car outside. I opened the door. ‘Where are the others?’
‘En route. Jump in.’
Once we started moving Lincoln mumbled, ‘Really not the way I saw things panning out.’
I raised an eyebrow. I’d half expected he’d pretend the earlier conversation never took place. ‘And where exactly did you see tonight finishing?’
‘With you on your back …’ He paused to see my eyes bug out at the painful pun before he chuckled and finished the sentence, ‘after collapsing from too much salsa.’ He didn’t stop grinning.
‘Ha, ha,’ I said, but then burst out laughing. He laughed beside me and took my hand and I realised he was giving me my one night of fun.
‘I think you’ve got that the wrong way round, Linc. I’d dance circles around you. Dancing is my thing.’
‘You said you couldn’t salsa,’ he said.
‘What – and you do?’
He looked entirely too smug and his laugh became lower and secretive. The sound was glorious, pulsing out warmth. My fingernails dug into the seat but the pain of my soul stirring was worth it.
‘You realise you haven’t ever seen me dance.’
True. Usually, he ran a mile from me when I asked him. Suddenly, I wanted to see him dance more than anything, see him relax for once.
I licked my lips nervously. ‘Well, I guess you owe me one now – a dance, that is.’
He settled back into the seat, still smiling but focused on the road. ‘I guess I do.’
‘Do I get to collect at a time of my choosing?’
He swallowed, his expression now more guarded. ‘Within reason.’
I looked out the window. If there was a god – I hated him. Apart from all the angelic reasons I’d been provided with, I mean, who could do this to someone – inflict this much torment? It was not right. Not natural.
Lincoln pulled into the kerb outside my apartment building. I saw everyone else at the front doors, waiting.
‘Ah … Why are we here?’ I asked.
‘Griffin just told me to come here,’ Lincoln said, turning off the engine and jumping out.
I followed and we joined Steph, Zoe, Spence and Salvatore at the doors.
Zoe raised her eyebrows at me.
‘Sorry,’ I said with a wince, knowing tonight – and Jase – had not gone her way.
She gnawed on the inside of her cheek for a moment but then shrugged, flicking a hand in the air. ‘To be honest, it was all a little complicated anyway,’ she said. ‘Not my kinda gig.’
We smiled at each other, but I saw a hint of sadness cross her face. Or was it loneliness?
Steph took a long look at Lincoln. ‘Are you wearing Onyx’s Ralph Lauren suit?’
Lincoln looked bemused. ‘How did you know?’
She shrugged. ‘He’s a good shopping partner and someone else,’ she looked at me, ‘is always busy training.’
‘He offered and I didn’t have time to go home and change.’ He glanced at me again. ‘There were things to be done.’
‘Clearly,’ Steph said dryly. ‘I do hope you left my brother in one piece.’
‘I didn’t touch him,’ Lincoln said.
‘I meant emotionally,’ Steph replied, following as we all entered the lift.
‘Oh,’ Lincoln said, and offered no more.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘There is little struggle; the doom of the heroes is fixed on high, and they pass in sublime composure, to fulfil their destiny. Their sorrows are awful …’
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd
Dad and Evelyn were sitting at the dining table. Both of their heads snapped up when they saw me walk in. Dad smiled ear to ear, one of his proud-to-be-Dad looks. ‘Violet, you look … Wow.’
I smiled. ‘Thanks, Dad.’
‘Very beautiful,’ Evelyn said, a strange expression on her face.
I rolled my eyes. ‘I’m going to get changed.’ And before she could say anything else, I took off for my room, where I proceeded to change into old jeans and a T-shirt and instantly felt more myself.
Walking out again, my eye caught on my portfolio and all my new supplies waiting to be used at the Fenton course. I bit my lower lip, shut off the light and headed back to the living room.
Griffin was standing at the head of the dining table, while Lincoln had moved to the back wall and was leaning against it. Everyone else had taken seats. I chose the empty space beside Dad. It was strange having everyone together, and in my home. My two worlds had collided and I desperately hoped it was a good thing.
‘Here you are, sweetheart,’ Dad said sliding a coffee towards me.
I gripped the mug in both hands, took a sip and sighed with relief – coffee had that effect.
‘I imagine everyone is wondering why we’re here …’ Griffin started.
‘Not particularly,’ Evelyn responded, flicking her badly chopped bangs from her face. ‘If you’re here, you’re here for me.’
Griffin nodded. ‘I’m afraid so, Evelyn. The Academy, it seems, are well aware of your location. They’ve demanded that you travel to New York for a full evaluation. “Non-negotiable” were their words. And,’ he looked at me and I knew my night had just gone from hopeful to hopeless, ‘they’ve strongly urged that Violet makes the trip as well to attend formal Grigori assessment. If she doesn’t, they’ll consider it a hostile act against the Academy’s procedures and will respond accordingly.’
‘Meaning they’ll send forces here,’ Evelyn said.
Griffin’s lack of response and weary downcast eyes were answer enough.
Evelyn sighed. ‘Josephine?’
Griffin tilted his head to the side and half smiled in tacit acknowledgement. He turned to Dad. ‘Josephine is second in command on the Assembly that controls the Academy.’
‘I don’t care. Neither of you will be going anywhere,’ Dad said, looking between us and then to Griffin. ‘Forces or not.’
Evelyn took Dad’s hand in hers. ‘It’s okay, James. Josephine and I go way back. I know how she operates and I also know when not to push her.’ She glanced at Griffin. ‘I would never bring Academy forces into your city. You’ve already taken an undeserved risk harbouring me for the past three weeks and I’m very grateful.’
Evelyn’s words seemed genuine but her tone remained clipped. I couldn’t work her out.
‘Of course. But with all due respect – it was deserved.’ Griffin looked at me and nodded.
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
‘Indeed,’ Evelyn said.
Griffin settled into a chair. ‘But you’re right. In my position, I cannot go up against the Acade
my personally. I’m bound to the Assembly and it directly affects the safety of this city. I’d never normally put you or Violet at risk but there is another reason I believe you both need to go.’
Evelyn took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them I saw something new – her inner warrior. She stared at me and I had to work hard not to shrink back.
‘Lilith has gone home.’
Griffin gave a weary nod.
‘I guess the party really is over,’ Spence said, slumping into his chair.
I couldn’t have agreed more.
‘What do you mean, gone “home”?’ Lincoln asked, pushing away from the wall.
‘As much as anywhere was a home for her.’ Griffin rubbed his eyes, the weight of his words increasing. ‘We suspected she would, but only just received confirmation. Lilith lived long enough to travel to all corners of the world, but before Evelyn returned her she’d taken a shine to the state of New York. Manhattan is heavily populated by exiles. She will have strength and numbers there.’
Evelyn pushed back in her chair, paused, then stood up.
‘I knew you’d keep this,’ she said to Dad, fingering a large white ceramic vase that sat in its usual place on the table.
He cleared his throat. ‘Of course.’
I, at least, knew this story. Evelyn, an artist herself, used to make ceramics. This was the last piece she’d crafted. Dad had always kept it on display.
She picked up the heavy vase, as though it were as light as a feather.
‘I’m glad you did,’ she said, before throwing it on the floor.
Dad jumped to his feet, hands out. ‘No!’
‘I’ll make you another one. I promise.’ She leaned down and pushed the fragments aside until her hand found what she was looking for. She stood, holding her Grigori dagger.
‘Cool,’ Zoe murmured.
Griffin was the one to gasp. ‘I don’t understand. Grigori blades are known to disappear if they exist without a Grigori owner.’
Evelyn turned the dagger’s handle in her hand, getting reacquainted with it. ‘Nothing about me is normal.’
My hand passed over the hilt of my own Grigori dagger, the dagger that Phoenix had thrown into the volcano at Santorini and that had somehow returned to me three days later. I’d woken up to find it on my bedside table. Not much was normal about me, either.
Evelyn passed Griffin the dagger. ‘Would you mind holding on to this?’ She took off her wristbands and handed them to Griffin as well.
‘You’re trusting me with a lot, considering I’m about to deliver you to the Assembly – where you will be held indefinitely.’
She put a hand on Griffin’s shoulder and glanced at me. ‘You’ve kept her safe. Guided her, when I could not. It is not a big thing to trust you with mere weapons.’
Griffin nodded at the same time as I rolled my eyes.
God, is he welling up? Buying into her crap?
‘Gee, Griff – need a tissue?’ Spence said, killing the moment.
‘When are we leaving?’ I asked, getting back to business.
Griffin pulled himself together. ‘Tomorrow. The Academy has arranged a plane.’
‘Okay,’ I said as I grabbed my empty coffee cup and headed towards the kitchen, needing to move.
I made it to the corner where I was out of sight before I exhaled and, hands gripping the bench, dropped my head.
I’m going to miss the Fenton course.
I was being stupid – it was meaningless, just an art course, but it was my art course. I’d earned my place in it and had been looking forward to it for so long. It was the only thing I had that was separate from all of this and now I was going to have to give it up. I took a moment to pull myself together, then I walked back out, refusing to show any weakness in front of everyone. I felt Lincoln’s eyes on me. I didn’t look at him.
Evelyn was talking. ‘There’s something you’ll need to know before we leave.’
‘What’s that?’ Griffin responded.
‘If I’m being held captive and can’t get out when Lilith is found, she’ll need to be stopped. The reason for my return isn’t just to help fight her, it’s to finally explain how I returned her.’
‘You’ve never told anyone before?’ Lincoln asked.
She shook her head. ‘I can’t explain why not. I just knew it was a secret I had to keep.’
Her words sent an inexplicable shiver up my spine.
Evelyn looked around, assessing us all. I wasn’t sure she liked what she saw.
‘Why don’t you have more senior Grigori here?’ she asked, looking at Griffin accusingly. But his Seraph-given authority did not waver for a moment.
‘Because I can’t get all my Grigori into the Academy. Spence, Salvatore and Zoe are all students and can return with us if they choose. I’ll travel as an escort and Lincoln will come as Violet’s partner. You won’t find any more senior than the two of us.’
Evelyn fixed a challenging glare on Griffin before conceding with a small nod. Finally, power struggles over, she settled into her chair and began her story.
‘Lilith was created first and she is more powerful for it. A Grigori dagger made by lesser angels will have no impact on her and even those weapons of higher ranking angels,’ she looked at me, ‘will not be able to kill her. Jonathan–’ her voice caught. ‘My partner and I spent more than half a century tracking down old myths and forgotten tales about a substance that could harm exiles in human form. The potion dated back to ancient Egypt and seemed to be extinct. We found imitations but learned the only chance of locating the real thing was by dating it back to the time when angels were still permitted on earth – the time before the flood – and trying to find an untapped source.’
‘That must’ve been near impossible,’ Lincoln said.
‘It was. But it was also our only chance. We needed the combination of this potion – a type of poison – and the Grigori blade if we were going to have any chance of incapacitating Lilith. The potion itself had thirteen ingredients. Twelve were earthbound. However,’ she closed her eyes briefly, ‘the thirteenth was from the angel realm.’
‘So how did you find it?’ Griffin asked, enthralled.
‘By looking in places where angels who were once on earth might have left it behind. We searched Egyptian tombs that predated the flood until eventually we found one small vial in a just-discovered tomb in 1922.’
Steph gasped. ‘Tutankhamun.’
Evelyn nodded.
‘Why Egypt?’ Lincoln enquired.
‘Some of the Pharaohs believed this potion eliminated evil spirits and would elevate them to angelhood after death. They called it the First Breath of the Afterlife.’
‘If this potion’s purpose is just to incapacitate her, wouldn’t Violet’s power do the same thing?’ Griffin asked.
I rolled my eyes. Clearly Griffin and Evelyn had been talking. I’d never explained the extent of my abilities to her and had asked Dad not to discuss them with her either. But from the look on her face now, she wasn’t surprised to hear that I was able to hold exiles immobile without the physical contact other Grigori needed.
‘It could …’ Evelyn said to Griffin. ‘But I doubt very much she is strong enough yet.’
Nice.
I gritted my teeth, defensive. ‘And I doubt very much that you have any idea just how strong I am!’
Evelyn ignored me and kept talking. ‘And relying on Violet is a big risk to take. The more I think about it, the more I question if it will be enough. I’d prefer that this didn’t all rest in her hands.’
I scoffed. ‘Yes, God forbid. We both know the chances are much more in favour of me getting dead long before I can be of any real use.’
Evelyn looked right at me, her stare unfaltering. ‘Yes.’
‘What?’ Dad snapped, looking at Evelyn as if seeing her for the first time. I couldn’t help but be pleased he was finally start to see the real her.
Evelyn turned to face him. ‘We may all di
e trying to stop her, James; I’ve seen countless humans and way too many Grigori fall at her hand. We must be responsible. We must plan for every outcome.’
‘Tell us more about the poison,’ Griffin interjected. ‘How do we find it?’
She shook her head. ‘That’s the thing. It took us half a century to find the vial, and I used it. You’ll never find any more.’
‘What’s it called?’ Steph questioned. She’d been studiously writing down all the details Evelyn had shared.
‘It has a few names. Qorot is one, but the most common is Qeres.’
‘The perfume?’ Steph replied. ‘I’ve read about that – it was used in the mummification process.’
Evelyn looked impressed. ‘Yes, though what they refer to as Qeres now is simply that – a perfume. The original concoction was something quite different. It was both an angelic weapon and, when treated with the potion, a way to elevate the sacred tabernacles to become more powerful than anything in the human world.’
I thought of the Ark of the Covenant that we’d opened in Moses’ tomb in Jordan. It certainly had not seemed like anything from this world.
‘Do you know of any books that might be able to help us?’ Steph asked.
‘No,’ Evelyn responded. ‘There were rumours of some ancient texts that had documented its history – but they were destroyed long ago. I know most of the ingredients – frankincense, myrrh and lotus to start – simple earthbound components. But we only ever knew of ten of the ingredients with certainty, leaving us to guess the last two. This problem and the unidentified thirteenth ingredient were the reasons we had to find the potion in its finished state.’
Steph stood up, staring into space.
‘What are you thinking?’ Griffin asked. He’d come to respect and appreciate Steph’s geeky tendencies.
‘We should talk to Dapper. If anyone would know where to find a reference to this stuff, I have a feeling it would be him,’ Steph said.
‘Dapper?’ Dad asked.
I couldn’t hold back my smile, looking at Dad and Evelyn. Lincoln seemed amused, too. Not only were they about to meet Dapper for the first time, but my parents were also about to be introduced to Onyx.