Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (116 page)

Lincoln and Griffin sat at the far end of the table— of course

I’d known exactly where he was from the moment I’d entered the

building. Griffin gave me a look that translated to:
You should be
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sitting up at this end of the table.
I looked around my end— Spence next to me, a seat spare for Steph on my other side. Onyx had made himself comfortable a couple of chairs down, and I spotted him

emptying something from a silver bottle into his coffee.

Typical.

The bruises on his face were almost completely healed. He had

recovered at an impossible rate, not unlike Steph. I stared at him until he looked up and sneered at me.

Beth and Archer sat at the middle of the table, chatting to each other. I imagined they had seen a lot in their five hundred years.

Today was just another day at the office for them.

I turned my attention back to the far end. Lincoln was beside

Griffin. When I looked, he also glanced at me. We smiled at each other, just like any other friends would, but we both quickly looked away again. I was left breathless, as always.

Dapper was heading in the heavy- hitter direction and took the

seat beside Griffin. Samuel and Kaitlin were next to Dapper and another pair of Grigori, Nathan and Becca, sat opposite. I’d only met them in passing. They worked on the outskirts of the city.

Griffin had told me they were like border control, and from everything he didn’t say, I had assumed it was a hands- on kind of job.

They were young— about the same age as Lincoln— and I knew

Griffin regarded them highly as warriors. He had told me before that if it came to a fight, we wanted to have them with us. The simple fact they were there spoke volumes.

That was it— everyone who had been invited to the insiders’

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meeting. The most surprising attendee was definitely Onyx. I

wondered what he’d done or said to get himself on the VIP list.

All in all, I was happy I’d chosen this end of the table— sitting between Spence and Steph was much easier than sitting between

Griffin and Lincoln.

“You okay?” Spence asked, breaking into my thoughts.

I looked down. I was bent over in pain I’d been refusing to

acknowledge, my arm wrapped around my waist.

“Um…” Was I? “Yeah, just not feeling great.” I dropped my arm

and sat up.

“Bad time of the month?”

“No!” I said, not bothering to protest at his jab while I tried to figure out exactly what the throbbing ache was.

Griffin started passing around sheets of paper, copies of the

prophecy. I took one, even though I had the original folded in my pocket, and straightened myself out.

“Death in verse,” Spence whispered in my ear as he waggled

his eyebrows.

But despite Steph and I breaking into laughter the day before,

now that I understood more of the content, I couldn’t muster a

smile and instead felt the blood draining from my face.

“Let’s start from the bottom, people,” Griffin said. Then he

turned to Dapper and gave him a nod.

Dapper moved forward on his chair and pulled out a pair of

spectacles. I was fascinated by how different they made him

look. Dapper is a nightclub owner, not exactly slender, and his 195

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mannerisms are not delicate in any way. But with those diamante-studded frames, I was quite sure this was a side to Dapper he

showed very rarely indeed.

“Right. Here’s what we can decipher. Phoenix is the admirer

with the terrible desire. There is no real hidden meaning in that.

The Obolus is traditionally a silver coin that used to be placed on the eyes of the dead as payment to the ferryman for passage to the next world or afterlife. Phoenix will have to make a payment, probably silver, and ‘red’ I would assume is a blood- offering.”

The explanation closely followed Dad’s.

“Whose blood?” Spence called out.

“We’re not sure. Griffin believes it will be Phoenix’s own, but it could be another’s. Once the payment is made, the one who is beckoned”— he raised his eyes to the table— “Lilith, in this case, will be released from Tartarus.”

“Which is Hell?” Spence called out again.

“Yes,” Griffin said, shooting him a “shut up” look.

Dapper studied the paper some more and pointed to it. “Then

we have the verse above. This is about sacrifice.”

I thought back to Dad’s words. He really knew how to break

down a poem.

“Six must be killed to bring her back. And this is where it gets difficult, but I believe three of a like kind, therefore exiles, must be returned in water and another three in fire, and”— he looked down and then back up, as if mustering bravery— “I cannot see a way for any of this to come to fruition if it is not at the hand of a Grigori.” 196

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Everyone bar Onyx looked stunned. Even Griffin, who I was

sure had already heard this theory or even suggested it, was silent.

It was Steph who cleared her throat meekly and started to speak.

“Exiles can kill other exiles but the only guaranteed return of an exile that could count as an offering to Tartarus must be made by a Grigori blade.”

“Well, no Grigori is about to let that happen,” Spence said.

But I never thought I would hand over the Exile Scripture

to Phoenix.

Not
until
I
did.

Griffin stood up. “There is still a lot that is unclear but we do have some time. Thanks to Stephanie, we have a translation that Phoenix would not have been able to interpret yet. And thanks

to Onyx”— he glanced toward him and then quickly to me— “we

have a location.”

“You know where Kalliste is?” I asked, looking at Onyx.

Was that what he’d wanted to talk to me about today?

Onyx took a gulp of his “coffee,” barely acknowledging my question.

“I want to come with you. I’ll give you my knowledge and”— he

looked at Griffin then me, smugly— “my word that I will share it only with you. Unless, of course, it is physically beaten out of me, in which case I will tell whoever has the fastest fist.” He sat back, typical Onyx, smiling and waiting for us to give in to his demands.

“Why would you want to come with us?” Lincoln asked.

“I have my reasons. They are unrelated and do not concern you.”

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read in Onyx’s request obviously hadn’t worried him too much.

Lincoln looked like he wanted to protest, but Griffin shut him

down: “We have no other choice. We need that location.”

Onyx gloated, leaning back and slinging an arm over the back

of his chair, but I didn’t miss the moment of relief he hadn’t been able to hide. He moved into a dramatic presentation, relaxing his shoulders and stalling. I could tell he particularly enjoyed that he’d ruffled the usually impenetrable Lincoln. Onyx was one of the only people who seemed to irritate Lincoln. History does that.

“The first part of the poem almost told me, alone. There have

been many stories over the years about…gateways. ‘What once was of Atlas and also Kalliste.’ Plato was one of the only humans to work it out— a city that was so great, it would’ve conquered the world. It was well before my time on earth, though I watched it from a different point of view. Maybe 10,000 BC. Of course, it is long gone now, somewhere at the bottom of the ocean perhaps, and what is left behind, a mere gravestone. An island that once held the name Kalliste—
the
most
beautiful.
What remains of it surrounds an opening to Hell, always waiting, never truly sleeping.”

“Where?” Griffin asked evenly.

“It appears we will be taking a journey to the Cyclades Islands.”

“Greece?” Steph asked. She paused, as if visualizing a map,

which she probably was, before her head shot up. “Santorini! The most southern island. That’s where the gateway is.” And then, as if another thought sideswiped her, she blinked and paled. “Thera…” she breathed.

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I looked around the table and a few other faces started to

blanch too.

“What?” I responded. “What does that mean?”

Griffin swallowed. “The island of Santorini used to be known as Thera as well. It was an entire civilization built on top of an island, which was also…a volcano. In around 1650 BC, it erupted.”

“Closer to 1630 BC,” Onyx corrected. I had a feeling he’d been

around for that one.

“The blast was so enormous, a great deal of the island sunk into the ocean and what is left now is just the outer rim. Some people believe it caused the destruction of the entire Minoan civilization on the neighboring island of Crete. And some,” Griffin looked at Onyx as he finished, “believe that Thera was the home of the lost city of Atlantis.”

“So the volcano sank?” Spence asked.

Lincoln stood up and moved away from the table as if he needed

to do something. He stopped near the bar, still within hearing

distance but facing away.

“Yes, it did,” Onyx said, “but Hell does not stay down for long— it has been rising out of the water ever since. And that volcano is still very much alive.”

“How did the volcano destroy people on another island?” Becca

asked. “Even a huge blast couldn’t send lava that distance.”

“Tsunami,” Steph said. Just one terrifying word.

“Can’t fight that,” Becca said, slumping back down.

“Yeah, ’cause a volcano on its own was going to be a piece of

cake,” Spence said.

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I pulled out the first poem that Steph had translated. “‘Ash will fall as fire will rain.’ They’re going to make the volcano erupt, aren’t they? The volcano is the gate.”

No one answered. No one needed to. Even Onyx was silent.

Dapper started cleaning, clearing away plates and cups. It was

what he did when things were bad. The rest of us just sat there in shock.

Lincoln eventually rejoined the table. “When do we leave?”

Griffin took a moment to respond, deep in thought.

“Tonight.”

I looked over at Steph.

She raised her eyebrows. “Don’t even! I’m coming this time.”

She folded her arms.

“It’s too dangerous.”

“I’m sorry, Violet, but Stephanie is a part of this fight now. She has proved her value and there are still parts of the Scripture to be translated. There are some symbols she might be able to help decipher. If she is willing, and agrees to stay clear of the line of fire and follow instructions, she will be coming.”

“What about school?” I asked, wishing once again I had never

brought her into this world. How could Griffin do this? She had already been kidnapped once.

“We both know
I
can afford some time off school. And anyway, Vi, this is bigger than that stuff. It’s not only important to you to stop him.”

She was right, but… “I can’t defend you.”

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“I never asked you to, and anyway, I have no intention of putting myself on the front line. How about you just do your thing and let me do mine?”

I could see nothing I said would change anything, and I

could also see Griffin had no intention of letting me make her

stay behind.

“I’ll go too. We’ll work on the Scripture together and stay out of the fight,” Dapper said, taking off his glasses. His eyes locked with mine and he gave me the smallest nod, a promise. He would keep

her safe. I nodded back— I’d hold him to it.

“Nine p.m. at the airport. Beth and Archer will stay behind and run the city,” Griffin continued.

They both nodded.

“The rest of you are expected on that plane. It will be chartered, so bring your passports,” Griffin said, putting his files away and digging into his bag.

I was about to speak up, explain I didn’t even have a passport— I hadn’t needed one for Jordan since we’d been smuggled in— when

he pulled something out of his bag and slid it across the table till it stopped in front of me.

I picked it up— a passport and other forms of identification,

including a credit card.

“Is this stuff legit?” I asked, looking at a picture of me I didn’t remember having had taken.

“Yes.” He smiled. “And no. It’s standard documentation for

all Grigori. We have it so we cannot be traced by government

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authorities. No one can ever track you if you are using these documents. Don’t bring anything other than these and you’ll be fine.”

“The credit card?” I questioned, flashing Steph a quick smile.

“For emergencies,” he said, giving me a don’t- even- think-

about- it look much better than anything Dad had ever delivered.

I slipped it all in my backpack just as Onyx cleared his throat.

“Yes, Onyx. I’ll have documentation for you at the airport,”

Griffin said.

Onyx smiled broadly.

“Nine p.m., people,” Griffin repeated before gesturing to Beth

and Archer to follow him. There would be a lot they would have to go over before Griffin left the city in their hands.

Onyx slipped out of his seat and headed straight for the bar.

“Keys!” he called out, when he stopped in front of the pull- down cage encasing all of the alcohol.