Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (123 page)

be dark. You also gave us wings and halos.” Uri looked over his shoulder toward Lincoln and I felt the urge to redirect his attention— to protect Lincoln. I took a step toward Uri.

“Don’t. Leave him alone.”

“And what is it you think I can do to him that has not already

been done?”

With that, he turned back to me. We were now close, too close.

“Is it all decided?” I asked, my voice quivering at the thought. I needed to know.

“You have choices, as always. Consent remains yours to be given freely. But you have certain inclinations firmly embedded, so your path will not be altered easily. Though there are those who believe otherwise and are determined.”

“How do I stop Phoenix?”

“You cannot. Only he can stop himself. He must choose, as

must you. For him, the right choice has not yet crossed his path.”

“Will it?” I asked, feeling a faint spark of hope.

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His head tilted to the side, a finger twitched. Normally I

wouldn’t notice the minuscule movements on an ordinary person,

but Uri was not ordinary and he did not move at all unless encouraged. Something about my reaction fascinated him. I quickly set my mind and face to blank, which only captivated him further,

earning me a small up curl at the corner of his mouth.

“Look for what is old, not necessarily alluring to the eye, but certainly beguiling to the angel within. Good-bye, Violet.”

I swallowed. Question time was over.

“Good-bye, Uri,” I said, my eyes drifting again to his surrounds and feeling the urge to reach out and touch— no, more. Those

floating things behind him, and even the shadows that seemed to hover below them, were so lifelike and disturbingly beautiful—

shimmering under unnaturally luminous light. I wondered if they were angels, perhaps in their true form. Whatever they were, I felt a sense of protectiveness toward them and a desire to be near them.

I was drawn to them.

Uri turned his curious gaze from me, and the sands started to

whirl around him. Even though it was amazing, it wasn’t dramatic; it just had to be. I felt the change as normal gravity returned and my stomach lurched with all that was not human about what had

happened. Why was I the only one who could see these things?

But then I opened my tightly clenched fist and stared down to find grains of sand that had remained behind.

Well, that’s new.

————

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Jessica shirvington

I started making my way slowly down the rest of the stairs, trying to readjust my movements and slow my breathing. The entire visitation by Uri had left me on edge. He was certainly an unwanted surprise, but although he left me more unnerved than Nox had

ever done, at least he didn’t make me feel like he was trying to ensnare me.

When I joined Lincoln at the car, he held the door open for

me and looked at the ground. I could feel his power, the silken honey flavors thickening all around him. Nothing had changed

for him— he hadn’t witnessed the conversation with Uri; he’d been halted in time and space like everyone else.

“Are you okay?” I asked, as I slid into the backseat. Because

despite what I knew, he looked different and seemed as if he was out of breath too.

“Are you?” he replied, his voice shaky. “I swear I could’ve…Did you just use your power or…I think I had some kind of déjà vu.”
He
felt
it
too.

When I’d tried to reach out to him through our link, he had

registered something. I bit down on my lip and considered telling him everything. But right now, I didn’t know if he’d believe me.

Crossing the realms like this was not normal for Grigori and I

hadn’t told anyone about my encounter with Nox in Jordan. At the time, it hadn’t seemed like something I needed to keep secret, but so much else had happened since then that I’d started to wonder if it had been just another trick of the mind. Now…well, it felt like I’d become a radar for all things wrong and weird. People already 256

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looked at me strangely. I didn’t want Lincoln to become one of

those people.

Before I knew what I was doing, the words came out.

“Everything’s fine.”

He nodded, still holding the door open,
still
not looking at me.

I was certain he knew I was lying.

“Max will ride with you in the back. I’m going to sit up front.”

“Oh. Sure.”

I sank back into my seat, telling myself it was better this

way. Reminding myself that if he were sitting beside me now,

looking the way he did, any progress I’d made in the steady-

breathing department would have flown out the window.

Breathing while wearing the bodiced dress was already chal-

lenging enough. But still, the knot in my stomach— the one that wasn’t about being Grigori or making good decisions and was all teenager— twisted.

“You’re Morgan’s partner, right?” I asked the perfectly groomed black- clad guy sitting next to me.

“Yes, I’m Maximilian,” he said. “Or just Max,” he added with a

small smile.

Wow, another ninja who’s almost normal.

“Did you arrange the car?” I asked, anything to break the tension that was riding along with us.

The sedan was a significant improvement on the earlier

taxis— not quite a limo but large and black and equipped with a suited driver.

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Jessica shirvington

Max cleared his throat. “No. The car was sent courtesy of

the Keeper.”

“Oh,” I said, realizing it would probably be better not to ask any more questions with the Keeper’s chauffeur listening in. I looked at him again and my curiosity grew, mostly because…he was human.

Thankfully, the drive was not long. Santorini was a relatively small island, so even though we had probably driven half its length, the car soon pulled to a halt outside what I was sure— from the bright, roaming light I’d been watching on our approach— was a lighthouse.

We all got out, Max giving me his arm to help me keep my

balance on the gravel in my extreme high heels. He walked me to the door, Lincoln following a few paces behind.

“Where are we?” I asked, nervously pushing back the power I

could feel emanating from the place.

“Akrotiri Lighthouse, the bottom point of Santorini. I’ll be

outside with the car,” Max said, stopping at the foot of the stairs leading to the front doors. “This is as far as I’m permitted.”

He moved back to the car, beside which the chauffeur still stood.

It was disconcerting that the driver too obviously didn’t want to move any closer to the lighthouse.

Lincoln had approached so silently that his words startled me.

“Are you ready? We can leave right now if you’d prefer?”

Something in his voice sounded hopeful.

But I had to go in there and give this exile the jewelry. Josephine said that would be all.

How
bad
could
it
be?

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Yeah! ’Cause dealing with exiles is always straightforward! And
Josephine
can
definitely
be
trusted.

A wave of nausea washed over me.

I knew, deep down, something was very wrong.

Despite my intense desire not to believe anything that came out of her mouth, Josephine had been right about one thing— Phoenix would be on his way by now and this might be our only hope of

staying on the island.

Just
show
him
the
jewelry
and
let
him
have
it.

I could do that.

Before Lincoln, with that concerned look on his face, had a chance to say anything else, I reached out and knocked on the door.

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chapter
twenty- three

“But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose
waves cast up mire and mud.”

IsaIaH 57:20

Words failed me when the door opened and I found myself staring at a faceless man. If that’s what he was. My stomach churned. I was torn between squinting to see if I could see anything in the shadows of his hooded cloak and turning on my heel to make a

run for it.

Th e last time I’d stood before a faceless fi gure, I had done something that would stay with me forever. Suddenly, everything I had been telling myself a moment earlier seemed ridiculous.

We
need
to
go! We need to go!

I started backing away and looked over my shoulder. Max was

standing by the car watching us, straining to see who had just

opened the door.

“We need to go,” I hissed urgently, under my breath.

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But Lincoln didn’t take his eyes off the doorway. His power

was swirling around me, so intense it was like swimming inside

a beehive. He was standing rigid and pale, looking beyond the

cloaked figure.

“It’s too late for that.”

I followed his gaze and clapped a hand over my mouth. Another

eight figures, all cloaked, all faceless, stood behind the one at the door. The weirdest part— I could sense only one exile nearby.

These…
things
were hollow, but they were smiling— I could
feel
it. The nauseous sensation returned tenfold. I was quickly regretting my decision to go through with this.

The figure at the door spoke— not out loud— but inside my mind.

“Welcome. You will follow me. The Keeper is waiting.”

Holy
hell.

I almost dropped to the ground it was so invasive, like dozens

of cockroaches clawing their way out from inside my head. Fear

intensified and I retreated another step, but Lincoln’s hand was there, flat on my back, pushing me forward. He had heard the

words too.

I looked at him, panic making my pulse fly into overdrive, but

he just nodded me on. I knew he was right. You couldn’t run from exiles, and whatever these things were, I didn’t think running from them would be smart either.

I shook my hands, hoping it might throw off some of my terror,

and walked into the lighthouse ahead of Lincoln. Once inside, the chill from the cold, stone floor spread through me, claiming me.

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The figure at the door gestured for me and Lincoln to follow. The others, standing shoulder to shoulder, made no move to join us, but as we moved past them, I heard voices.

Screams.

Deathly howls of men, women…children. Hundreds. Thousands.

And just like when the figure at the door had “spoken” to us, every sound was amplified within my mind so that it was more than just hearing— it was
experiencing
.

I didn’t realize I had stopped, lost in the horror, until Lincoln took my hand, the warm honey of his power soothing me, reassuring me that I was okay. Only his voice could break through

the shrieking.

“Keep walking. Remember who we are. Use your will.”

My eyes focused on Lincoln and gradually I took back control

of my mind. The screaming faded until it stopped altogether.

I swallowed, my throat dry and scorched. “It felt so real. Like
I
was screaming.”

He kept an anxious eye on me and squeezed my hand before

releasing it. “You were.”

Oh.

The faceless figure was still moving ahead. We hurried to keep

up with him and his long, fluid gait as he took us down a narrow, winding staircase until it opened up into a more cumbersome

version, as if one had been added to the other. It looked as if the lower staircase was the older of the two.

Weird
.

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After what felt like, and probably was, over a thousand steps, we reached the bottom and a hallway.

Too
low, no air.

I’m not normally claustrophobic but this was extreme. I half

expected to stumble across a door with a sign over it saying, “Hell (Staff Only).”

I tried to focus on my surroundings to stop the feeling that

the walls were moving in on me and clear the blotches floating