Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (76 page)

power had opened to him, his power flooded into me. Finally, we could no longer deny the truth to each other.

Even
if
it
is
just
for
this
moment, it’s perfect.

I pulled away from him but kept my arms around his waist. Not

wanting to break contact yet. For once, things were as they should be. He knew I loved him; I knew he loved me.

We didn’t say it wouldn’t last. That there was too much at stake.

And we didn’t pretend it wasn’t real. One stolen moment that

would punish me later. Painfully.

It was a sentence I was prepared to serve.

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chapter
twenty- three

“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always
some reason in madness.”

fRIedRICh NIeTZsChe

On the way to the airport, Spence and I fi lled Magda and Lincoln in on everything. Th ey knew some from what Griffi n had told

them but hadn’t heard the latest updates about the plane or

the destination.

“I can’t believe you went to that aircraft hangar without me,”

Lincoln said. But he was only concerned, not accusatory. I was

struggling to follow, anyway. Lucid thoughts were hard to hold

on to. He was still holding my hand, his thumb running over it

back and forth, gently. I couldn’t stop counting. I was up to sixty-three. Sixty- four.

“It all comes back to Phoenix,” I said, my voice catching. Th e lies and omissions had to stop. Lincoln could handle it and he

deserved the truth. “It was Phoenix who brought back Nahilius.” Entice.indd 280

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Magda swung around from the front seat with surprise before

landing a sour look on me.

Jesus, she hates me to the extreme.

Lincoln was shocked too, but I kept going.

“He set it up to distract you. He wanted to separate us.”

Lincoln’s free hand fisted tightly. I heard his breathing deepen, the way it does when he’s fuming about something. Of all people to use Nahilius against him, Phoenix was the worst. In the end, Lincoln just nodded. He got it. I wasn’t going to rub it in.

We drove the rest of the way in silence. Spence was texting on

his phone constantly, and Magda didn’t acknowledge us again, but I knew she’d heard everything. I was guessing she was pissed it wasn’t her holding Lincoln’s hand right now.

Can’t say I felt bad for her though.

As we neared the airport, Lincoln squeezed my hand and shuf-

fled the tiny bit closer to me that the backseat would allow.

“Thank you, Vi,” he whispered.

It wasn’t only him that swallowed hard. I knew what he was

saying, how big it was. Saving someone from doing something so

horrific, something he would never have been able to come back

from— I knew how much it meant. I was glad I could save him. It felt a little like rescuing myself too.

The taxi pulled up outside departures and we all got out, except for Spence. He was still busy typing away on his phone.

“You guys go on. I’ll see you when you get back,” he said, barely looking up.

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Magda had already walked on ahead, not concerned at all with

what any of us did right now.

Sulking
much?

When Spence realized we hadn’t moved on, he looked up and

gave us a cheesy grin.

“It’s fine. Seriously. I get it: no partner, no ticket. It’s okay. I hear Jordan sucks, anyway.” He pulled the taxi door closed and went back to his phone. “See you guys later,” he said through the open window.

The car drove off and Lincoln, still holding my hand, started to walk toward the entrance to the departures area.

“You think he’s really going to let this go?”

“Not a chance,” I answered.

But before we could start to speculate as to what Spence was up to, my phone rang. I would have had to let go of Lincoln’s hand to pull it out. I didn’t want to. Once the connection was broken…I knew this wasn’t forever and wished I could hold on a little longer.

But then, Lincoln let go of me.

“I think that’s you,” he said, smiling as my heart sank, thinking that it seemed so easy for him.

I
guess
that’s that.

“Hello?” I said.

“Violet, tell me you’ve got them,” Griffin said.

“Yeah, we’re at the airport. Where do we go?”

“You’ll have to run. We’re already on the runway and they want

to take off. Don’t go through the commercial terminal. Come

around the southern end of the building and through the security 282

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gates there. There’s a uniformed soldier there, Lieutenant Marks, who’ll get you through. Don’t say anything to anyone.”

“Do we need passports?” I said, suddenly panicking I’d made a

critical error.

“No. Just get to Marks fast and you’ll be okay. Hurry!”

I was already running with Lincoln beside me keeping

pace. We couldn’t see Magda; she had gone on ahead into the

commercial building.

After a couple minutes of running way too fast for normal

humans, we spotted the security gates and had to slow to a walk—

there were more people around. We picked the official who had to be Lieutenant Marks because he was uniformed and already looking straight at us. As soon as we reached the gates, he said something to the security officers, who then nodded at us. Marks waved us in and was already jogging toward the runway. We followed suit.

When we hit the open tarmac, Marks pointed to a large green

plane that had at least a dozen military personnel standing guard around it and was stationary on the runway. After a quick nod, he started back in the opposite direction.

Lincoln took the lead and we ran to the back end of the plane,

which was still open. Griffin was standing there with a guy dressed head to toe in camouflage greens.

“You the last two?” the army guy called out over the roar of

the engines.

“No!” Lincoln yelled back. “One more on the way!”

We looked behind us but could see no sign of Magda.

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The soldier looked back to Griffin. “Sorry, but we have to go or we’ll lose our slot! Your friend will have to get on a later flight. We have a transport plane headed to Jordan tomorrow. Any stragglers can get on that.”

Griffin clearly wanted to argue, but the army guy was too busy

pushing us all toward the stairs as a military truck was driven up the ramp.

“That’s all of ’em!” yelled the driver as he jumped out and started back down the ramp. “You’re good to go!”

The soldier ushered us farther inside and hollered into his radio.

“All clear for takeoff! Doors up!”

Then he gave Griffin a salute, which Griffin aptly mirrored in

response, and disappeared up toward the front of the plane.

When the doors closed, things became much easier to hear.

“Right,” said Griffin, looking at Lincoln and me, and then

down. We were no longer holding hands but somehow, without

noticing, we’d moved so close, we were touching from shoulder to elbow. “You’d better tell me what the hell’s been going on,” he said, as we followed him through to the upstairs section of the double-decker plane.

It was amazing— not as big as the Antonov Phoenix had been

using, but it was still cool. Spence would have been in heaven. The cargo area was pretty standard, but upstairs was more similar to a commercial plane, though the seats were a lot bigger and there were desks scattered between them. Griffin stopped at the first set of seats arranged like a four- seater booth. Everyone else was already 284

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on the plane, seated and buckled. Nyla and Rudyard were oppo-

site, Zoe and Salvatore back a couple of rows behind them.

Lincoln and I filled Griffin in on what had happened with

Nahilius. I became nervous when I had to mention the guns,

but Lincoln stepped in and explained. He took responsibility for everything and didn’t skip over anything. He really was feeling like himself again— always the martyr.

Griffin honed in on the most significant issue instantly. “So

Magda has guns these days,” he said in a flat tone.

Poor Griffin. He looked exhausted. He’d been running all over

town trying to organize us, as well as the entire city. Magda should have been helping him, not putting a gun in Lincoln’s hands.

“Griff, this is on me. Don’t blame Magda. I was out of control.

She was only trying to help me,” Lincoln confessed, bowing his

head in shame. I fought the urge to contribute my opinion on

the matter.

“Yes, well, we’ll deal with that later. Let’s just get to Jordan and find these Scriptures.”

Griffin pulled a file from his bag and sat down. From the looks of it, he wanted to be left alone.

“Buckle up for takeoff,” a male voice said over the PA. It was

weird to hear what sounded like an order instead of a polite airline flight attendant.

Lincoln took my hand again and I exhaled, as if sated by just

one touch. He pulled me toward the back of the plane. When we

passed Rudyard, he put his hand out and grabbed my free wrist.

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“Are you sure?” he said to Lincoln as much as to me.

My eyes grew wide, my mouth quickly dry. I was about to

explain, to say that we knew it was too risky, when I looked at Lincoln. He was smiling.

“We’re hungry, Rudy. We’ll talk later,” Lincoln said and started to pull me toward him again. Rudyard kept hold of my wrist. He

didn’t say anything; he just held it for that extra moment, squeezed a bit tighter, and then slowly let me go with a thoughtful smile that I couldn’t decipher.

Lincoln stopped at the pantry at the end of the cabin and

handed me a banana I knew was for him and chips I knew were for me. I was somewhere between astonished, elated, and…petrified.

Lincoln looked happy. He grabbed a couple bottles of water and

we settled into the back seats behind Zoe and Salvatore, who after each saying a quick hello, left us in peace.

Is
this
possible? Does Lincoln mean to keep his hold on me for more
than just now?

I went through the motions, buckling up and eating my chips in

a daze, trying to work it all out. We were soul mates— I was almost sure of it. But as always, there was that voice, the one that pulls everything apart, whispering in my ear.

Are
you
sure
enough? Sure enough to let him risk his power?
I stared out the window.
Damn
.

Phoenix was probably on his way to Jordan too. No one had

sensed him or any other exiles at the airport; they’d gone somewhere. It was never going to be easy. We are Grigori— angel

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warriors who deal with the angel realm’s castoffs, the egotistical riffraff— but now, for the first time, there was a possibility we could face it together. Partners in every way.

If
you’re right. And if you’re wrong, he’ll never forgive you.

Lincoln snacked on his banana, stealing one of my chips every

now and then, and we chatted for a while. I tried, unsuccessfully, to focus when he asked me how my dad was doing on his trip, which

only reminded me I needed to call him. We talked about how I

would miss school and that it was good Steph could help me catch up. As we sat there, in a military airplane on our way to fight exiles for Scriptures that had been lost so long they were almost forgotten completely, Lincoln told me about a rock- climbing trip he’d seen advertised. He thought we could go together and use it for training.

I don’t know when I fell asleep, only that his arms stayed wrapped around me the entire time. For the first time I could remember, when I dreamed, the sun shone brightly and the world was as it

should be. A dream.

In
the
end, though, we all wake up…Don’t we?

————

Lincoln had to coax me awake when we landed. I was surprised

that I hadn’t woken up when we touched down.

“Where are we?” I asked, groggy.

“Jordan. You slept through the refuel,” Lincoln said.

I guess I was more exhausted than I’d realized.