Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (130 page)

Josephine had somehow convinced the Greek authorities to

consider closing access to the volcanic island until further notice, citing seismic activity. Spence had moaned he was going to be stuck all day following up what she had started, having to talk to local government to persuade them it was necessary. I thought he was

joking, but apparently he was the best choice since he could use his glamour skills to look the part. I also suspected Lincoln liked the idea of keeping Spence and me separated.

The third pair of Josephine’s ninjas walked ahead of us and held notepads. They talked quietly and waved their hands around a lot.

I didn’t know what they were pointing at. The whole lava- charred island seemed the same to me— dead. But they must have seen

more. Steph had noticed too and was not so subtly inching in their direction, eavesdropping.

“What about them?” I asked Morgan and Zoe, who was lagging

behind with us.

“Oh, they’re the Conductors,” Morgan answered.

“Conductors?” Once again, I felt naïve that I didn’t know

all the terms. It was hard to fit in history lessons around the 316

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fight- for- your- life practicals with exiles trying to kill me all the time. Luckily, Morgan didn’t seem to mind explaining.

“You have to think of each Grigori as a type of instrument. No

two of us are exactly the same, so when we need to come together in a battle against exiles, the Conductors are called in. They work out everyone’s strengths and how they can be put to best use in different scenarios.”

Zoe kicked a black rock toward a pile of other larger black rocks.

“Just like baseball. Fielders, pitchers, basemen.” She threw me a cocky grin. “I’m a batter.”

Of
course.

“What are you?” I asked Morgan.

She shrugged. “It really depends on the fight, but I usually stay in the outfield with Max,” she said, continuing with Zoe’s analogy.

“We’re both forms of shields. My strength allows me to send out pulses of confusion. If people come across the field I’m working, they lose clarity and usually go back in the direction they came from. Max performs a type of glamour.”

“Like Spence?”

“Same theory, different results. Spence glamours himself, people in close proximity, and small objects to assist. Max can glamour large spaces. Say we end up in a fight with exiles in a populated area— as long as he’s familiar with the space, Max can keep us

hidden so passersby just see the area as if we’re not there.”

I nodded, impressed. It now made sense that Max was being so

attentive to every detail— he was making blueprints.

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“And together,” Zoe said, sweeping an arm toward Morgan,

“they make a wicked diversion. Morgan keeps them away, and

those who slip through see nothing out of the ordinary.”

“But can people pass through Max’s barrier and see what’s really happening then?”

“It can happen if it were just his shield, but no one gets

through the both of us,” Morgan answered in a way that left no

room for doubt.

I wondered where they’d want me.

“On the bench if it’s up to Josephine,” Morgan said before she

slapped a hand to her mouth. I realized I must’ve spoken aloud.

“What?” Zoe spat, saving me the effort. “Violet’s our best

damn hope!”

Morgan held her hands up in defense. “I don’t know anything,

I swear.”

Zoe stepped closer to Morgan, formidably so. “Out with it.”

Morgan squirmed under the weight of Zoe’s glare and spoke

quickly. “I overheard her talking to the Conductors on the boat.

She said to make sure the plan wasn’t dependent on Violet in any way. When they tried to argue that her gifts were pivotal if we were outnumbered, she cut them off. I couldn’t hear what she said, but whatever it was, it shut them up because they didn’t argue again.”
Why
does
she
not
want
me
involved? Does she think I’m just
going
to
stand
back
and
let
my
friends
fight
for
me?

Maybe it was something else. Maybe she thought I’d already be

dead by then.

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Is
this
what
they
were
discussing
this
morning? Does Lincoln know?

I walked silently at the back of the group, taking a few moments to think. I still hadn’t told anyone about my run- in with Phoenix or his request— he’d already proved when he took Steph that he

was willing to hurt those around me to get what he wanted. If

I told Josephine, who clearly had ulterior motives, that Phoenix wanted me to meet him tonight and she stopped me from going,

someone I cared about would suffer. No. The risk was too great.

The Conductors called Zoe over to them and I went with her— I

needed to find out as much as I could. Although they regarded me with little interest when I approached, somehow I knew it was a pretense. I had to hold back my cynical smile. It was all games with these people.

Griffin still wasn’t altogether sure what the Academy knew about me. After Jordan, he had requested— with a side of “demand”—

that no one speak of Phoenix’s revelation until we had more information. Of course, that didn’t stop the theories.

It wasn’t comforting that Griffin was so worried about what the Assembly would do if they knew for sure. Obviously, it would not involve a red carpet.

My orders were not to go against Josephine, and I’d had every

intention of following them, but hearing Phoenix’s politely delivered threat changed things.

Ahead of us, on the gravel pathway that snaked around the

island, Lincoln was walking with Josephine. He was looking better, nodding as they talked in hushed tones and pointed to different 319

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parts of the volcano. He had his hands full trying to deal with her. She had already accused him of being too caught up in his

“connection” to me.

And, Phoenix had said,
only
me.

Phoenix would not stop. He would hurt me, hurt everyone I

loved. He’d done it to Lincoln when he brought back Nahilius, to Steph by kidnapping her, and now he had threatened Dad.

It
will
never
end.

A tear fell from my eye, and I quickly brushed it away.

No
time
for
that.

There would be no good in telling Lincoln. He couldn’t change

my mind, and it would only make it harder for both of us.

I needed to work out the best way to let everyone know that

Phoenix and countless exiles were already here without revealing that I’d actually seen him.

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chapter
twenty- eight

“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven
unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless
pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke
out of the pit; as the smoke of a great furnace.”

reVeLaTIONs 9:1– 2

“Zoe, we need to get a sense of the water depth around the island.

Can you manage that?” the female Conductor said, as if she barely had any faith in her abilities.

Guess
she
missed
the
part
where
Zoe
made
an
entire
mountain
rock
it
out
in
Jordan
a
few
months
ago!

Zoe shot her a smartass smile. “Already done. It’s deep all the way round, but defi nitely deepest on the western coast. And”— she looked uneasy and rolled her shoulders—

“there’s something

moving in the water. It’s creepy.”

“What is it?” I asked, refocusing on the conversation.

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She made a sour expression like she’d just eaten something bad.

“Don’t know, just that there’s motion deep down that isn’t a fish, you know?”

The Conductors nodded, wrote down the details, and got back

to business.

“How many yards to the bottom?”

Zoe balked. “Do I look like a tape measure? Deep, as in no one

needs to go that deep. Easily hundreds of yards.”

“And what about the volcano? Can you sense the energy

coming from it, sense what is below? Do you think you could

influence it?”

Zoe shifted her weight then closed her eyes for a moment before reopening them, grim. “I can’t sense the volcano at all. It’s almost like it isn’t even here. Maybe…maybe if it erupts, I’d get a better handle on it…”

Oh, well, there’s something to look forward to.

The Conductors nodded and walked off without another word.

Steph joined us as Zoe muttered, “Damn pencil pushers. Wait

till everything goes wrong, then we won’t see them anywhere.”

“What do you think they’re planning?” I asked, watching as

they moved farther away, now talking with Josephine and Lincoln.

Zoe shrugged.

“I think they’re trying to work out a way to control the volcano.

Maybe to disable it or something,” Steph said.

We shared a grave look. Even with Grigori skills, controlling a volcanic eruption seemed unlikely. Before any of us managed to

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put this doubt into words, there was a thundering explosion from where the Conductors had just been. The three of us hit the ground in time to see the showering of what had once been a very large boulder into thousands,
millions
of tiny pieces, raining down on us like grains of sand.

Josephine stood tall, and as we watched in shock, she dusted off her hands and walked ahead.

“Well,” she said loud enough for us all to hear, “at least we know my power is not affected here.”

What
in
holy
hell
is
her
power?

I stood up, ruffling rock dust out of my hair.

“Show- off,” Zoe sniped between coughs as she got up.

“More like homicidal maniac,” Steph said, looking at her now

not- so- cute shorts- and- tank- top combo after I pulled her up.

Morgan, who had been a little farther away, seemed to escape

without too heavy a dusting of sand.

Ahead of us, Lincoln grabbed hold of Hiro’s shirt, pushing him

back a few steps while exchanging a number of heated words that I didn’t catch. Max and Mia had to step between them to pull

them apart. After that, Lincoln appeared to calm down, eventually resuming his conversation with the Conductors.

We spent the next couple of hours scoping out the volcano.

Every now and then, Josephine would blow something up, never

giving any warning. By the time we were ready to return to the

boat, we looked like we’d been rolling around in a dirt bath, though nothing had come as close to us as the initial blast.

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Josephine, unsurprisingly, wasn’t marked at all, apart from

wearing a smirk of satisfaction.

Zoe, Steph, and I broke away from the pack on the walk back

to the boat and Zoe filled us in: “She can separate atoms. She isn’t actually exploding anything so much as pulling things apart with her mind. She explained it to our class once, saying she can look at any natural object and see its billions and billions of atoms. Once she sees them, she can move them. Apparently, though, as dramatic as she made it look today, it has its limitations.
She
can’t move anything larger than a pencil. So unless she wants to just separate something into pieces on the ground and have it fall to dust, she’s relatively useless on her own.”

“So how did she make the rocks move?” I asked, watching

Josephine as she walked ahead.

Zoe smiled ruefully. “Hiro’s specialty is gravity. He can remove it for short periods of time in isolated areas, but only enough to lift an object to hover level. The combination of her power and his causes the explosive reaction, a kind of double effect. There are other Grigori who have well- developed telekinesis too— Josephine always keeps one of them close.”