Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (90 page)

“You sent me those other dreams, didn’t you? They were about Jude,
weren’t they?” I asked, remembering flashbacks from dreams I had not
been able to hold onto.

“In a way.”

“He’s stuck here, isn’t he?” I pressed, starting to feel a kind of sickness
in my gut.

“He is waiting. Beware, Violet; trouble follows.”

I
didn’t even have a sarcastic retort. Mostly because I knew he was
telling the truth. I looked back to my canvas; it was completely gray
now, all the color covered over. I glanced to the window again.

He
was
gone. Despite my unanswered questions, I was relieved.

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I
walked
to
the
corner
of
my
art
studio, relishing the solitude. I
crumpled to the floor and allowed myself the private freedom to cry.

And cry. And cry.

————

I woke with a jolt when the plane touched the ground. My eyes

shot open and locked instantly with Lincoln’s. He was sitting on one of the landing seats along the side, watching me.

I quickly wiped my eyes to break the contact. They were wet. I

cursed myself.

By the time I looked back, Lincoln had moved away.

Spence and Salvatore made stretching noises as they unfolded

themselves from the truck. A group of army guys came from the

cockpit area and bowed their heads as they passed us. They headed straight for the coffin and stood in front of it respectfully.

“We have to get off,” I said to Zoe, not bothering to ask how she was. There was only one answer to that question.

She grabbed her backpack and kicked open her door. “You

sense anything?”

I concentrated. “No.”

She shrugged, trying to hide the relief. “Pity.”

I mustered a small smile, which she returned.

When we walked down the ramp from the back of the plane,

two Grigori were waiting for us. Zoe, Salvatore, and Spence went over and started speaking with them. I hung back until Spence

called me to join them. They were from the Academy in New York.

They were here to take Rudyard back.

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Jessica shirvington

And Nyla.

I felt sick as I watched the army guys wheel Rudyard’s pale

wooden coffin down the ramp. They had him on a goddamned

trolley. I felt even worse when I watched Griffin carrying Nyla.

Rudyard
got
the
better
deal.

The Grigori— I forget their names, although they introduced

themselves and I think I even shook their hands— had a private jet waiting. Griffin wouldn’t hand over Nyla. He insisted on carrying her onto the plane and getting her settled.

The Grigori told Zoe, Salvatore, and Spence that they would be

returning to collect them and all of Nyla and Rudyard’s belongings in two days. Everyone just nodded.

Lincoln stayed with Griffin, who was a mess after handing over

Nyla, walking him to a waiting taxi. Magda went with them. The

rest of us piled into another taxi. Phoenix wasn’t at the airport.

None of them were.

“I think we should have a memorial. You know, something here,

to say good- bye,” Zoe said.

I nodded. It was a good idea. Rudyard should be remembered.

“He had no regrets. Rudyard, I mean,” Zoe said. “I remember

once in one of his classes, he said if he were to die in battle, he would die fulfilled.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if he would agree now, given the

state in which he’d left Nyla.

“He also used to say, ‘We fight the fights that need fighting.

Sometimes we win, but when we lose and should we die, others

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will fight in our name, because only one thing is certain for Grigori: we must fight,’” Spence said, impersonating Rudyard endearingly.

“He was right,” I said.

Zoe jingled a set of keys I recognized in the air. “Lincoln gave me his keys. They’re taking Griffin via his place first. He needs a shower and has to check on the local Grigori. Lincoln said we could let ourselves in.”

Spence called out the address to the driver, who nodded and

drove on. I ignored the fact that Lincoln had left without a word and that he hadn’t passed this information through me, like he

once would have. That was before.

I fished out my cell phone, but it was long dead. “Hey, Salvatore, have you talked to Steph lately?”

Salvatore nodded. “I telephone her before boarded airplane. She was worried for you. Frantic. Said I was not to take my eyes from you. She is waiting at Mr. Lincoln’s houses.”

“Thanks,” I said, suddenly grateful Lincoln and Griffin weren’t going to get there first. I had a feeling Steph would have used the spare key to let herself in.

————

I was right. As soon as we put the key in the lock, Steph was pulling the door open from the inside.

She pushed past everyone, including Salvatore, and grabbed

me. Her slender frame hugged me so tight, I was scared I would

actually allow myself to feel it. But the numbness stayed with me.

Protected me.

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Jessica shirvington

“Thank God you’re okay,” Steph said.

How could I explain to her I wasn’t?

“Sall told me what happened. About Rudyard.” She looked

down. “And Nyla,” she added quietly.

“I think I should have a shower,” I said, subtly moving out of

Steph’s hold. If anyone could break me right now, it was her. I dug my cell out of my pocket and put it on Lincoln’s charger in the kitchen as I walked by. It even gutted me that we had the same phone.

“Vi, I…I can’t believe I have to do this to you,” Steph said, as she followed me and sucked in a deep breath. “I mean, I totally want you to hibernate, you know, do your thing. I don’t want to be part of the problem, but…I found something and I think…I

know
, you have to see.”

I just nodded and followed her down the hall toward the spare

room. Spence moved to follow us, but Steph gave him a look and

he turned back to the living room.

“You’ve been busy,” I said, taking in the chaos that was

Lincoln’s spare room. Boxes were open everywhere and papers

piled up in what I imagined were all chronological or alphabetical or numerical order, or something else incredibly intelligent that would be way beyond me yet totally normal for Steph. Then I

realized something else.

“Steph, Lincoln never even comes into this room himself. He’s

going to freak.”

“Violet, honey.” She braced a hand on my shoulder. “I know

you’ve been to hell and back. I do. I really get it and I don’t even 406

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Entice

know how you’re holding it together, but right now I need you to look at some pieces of paper and follow what I’m about to tell you.”

“Whatever this is, can’t it wait?”

“That’s the thing, sweetie…”

I looked up.

Steph shook her head.

Perfect
.

I sat on the floor and Steph sat beside me. She picked up the

first piece of paper that showed me bank records: transfers from Lincoln’s mom’s company, big lump sums going into some account.

Then she showed me more of the same and a piece of paper that

showed the bank account where the transfers had gone.

“Are you following?” Steph asked, watching me, reminding me

that somehow all of this mattered.

“Big money transfers from her company to this account and I

take it this account is somehow linked to Nahilius, right?”

“Right,” she said, sifting through the papers in her next pile.

“Steph,” I started to complain, but she shoved another piece of paper under my face and pointed to a line at the bottom. It was another bank transfer sheet. This one had funds, almost as large, going from Nahilius’s bogus account to another.

My eyes widened as I looked at the piece of paper. “Do you know who this account belongs to?” I asked, starting to understand.

Steph pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. “I had to hack into the computer files of the bank’s main server and could be going for a long vacation in jail very soon, but…” She waved the piece of paper.

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“You know who Nahilius was working for?”

Trust Steph to delve deeper than anyone else had dared to

consider.

She nodded. “And I want you to promise me that after you look

at this, no matter what— no matter what you want to do— you

have to swear you will not leave this room until I say you can.”

“Steph, stop messing around,” I snapped.

“Promise.”

“I’m not promising anything. Give me the damn paper or I’ll

stand up and take it from you.”

Steph stared at me. I stared back and wondered if I actually had it in me. She didn’t budge.

“Steph!” I yelled.

“I love you, Violet, so no. Not until you promise.” She held

strong but I saw her cringing just a little, her fingers clenched tightly to the paper. She was scared of me.

I recoiled. “Oh my God, Steph, I’m sorry. I…Everything is so

messed up.”

“I get it. Don’t think I haven’t worked it out, Vi. I know the

moment Nyla lost Rudyard, you lost…I’m sorry. And I feel like a cow having to do this to you, but I know if you promise me, you will do it, and I know you can’t look at this piece of paper until you promise me.”

I threw my head back and looked at the ceiling. “Okay. I

promise.” I stood up and Steph unfolded the piece of paper.

“I’ve got a new name for Mr. Burke’s list of great betrayers,”

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Steph said, as I read the words that made so many things click

into place.

I scrunched the paper in my hand and bit down hard. “I’m

gonna kill— ” But Steph cut me off.

“Not until I tell you, you can leave the room,” she said crossing her arms.

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chapter
thirty- three

“But suppose you struggle through to the good and find that it
also is dreadful?”

C. s. LeWIs

Steph let me be for the fi rst half hour. I sat on the ground, staring at the piece of paper, trying to put all the pieces together. Steph went about putting all the other paperwork back into boxes, leaving a few key documents in a small pile. Eventually, she sat beside me and helped me try to fi ll in the gaps. Every now and then, I’d leap to my feet and charge for the door, furious and needing to do

something. Each time, Steph pulled out the “You swore” card and I’d slump back to the ground.

After we had gone over about as much as I could handle, I

groaned. “Lincoln will be back soon. Maybe we should go out.”

Steph just headed back to the last of the boxes after passing me her laptop.

“Why don’t you read over my chem notes fi rst? You have a few

classes to catch up on.”

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I wanted to throw the computer against the wall. I couldn’t have cared less about chemistry. But Steph wasn’t going to give, so I opened the file and stared at the screen. I opened the wrong notes and up popped the ones from last week.

Gradually, as I read through our classwork on precious stones

and their characteristics, my curiosity grew.

“Are you connected to the Net?” I asked.

“Yep,” Steph said, lugging a heavy box up onto a few that were

already stacked.

I found what I was looking for quickly. For some reason, I wasn’t surprised. Miss Stallad’s excitement at giving a class that had just
popped
into her mind that morning now made perfect sense.

They’d
been leaving clues everywhere.

I sighed with crazy frustration and felt like such a puppet.

“Damn angels.” My head fell back against the wall, looking up

to the ceiling. “Why do you have to play all these games? Why

couldn’t you just tell me?” I might’ve been able to do something different, save Rudy.

“Vi, any chance you might be able to fill in those of us without a direct link?” Steph said, hands on hips.