Everlost (The Night Watchmen Series Book 3) (27 page)

MORNING HAS RUSHED TO MEET us, dumping pails of warm sunshine into our room.

Foreign voices and loud footsteps stir in the hallway, pecking at the edges of sleep until my eyes pop open. Falling asleep at two o’clock in the morning might not have been such a good idea. I groan and pull the cover up over my head, turning into Jaxen’s warmth. It’s too early to be awake, and far too easy to go back to sleep, rather than dealing with the outside world.

But the outside world doesn’t understand the word easy. Or tired.

My eyes lazily close. My thoughts scatter like leaves in a breeze, but then someone’s pounding on our door and the sound beats in sync with my rapidly beating heart. I contemplate using magic to permanently quiet those sounds, but Jaxen’s on his feet, pulling sweatpants on as he wipes at his eyes with the palms of his hands.

“What?” he says when he cracks the door open.

“Morning to you too, sunshine. Man, you look like shit.”

It’s Gavin. Of course. Our personal alarm clock. I swear he gets some sort of sick pleasure from waking those who aren’t morning people.

“Gee, thanks,” Jaxen groans, his voice raspy with sleep.

“Any time,” Gavin shoots back. “Listen, the leaders are meeting in ten in the kitchen, and they want you both there. So get your lazy asses up and get dressed. Coffee’s waiting downstairs.”

I sit up, holding the blanket to my chest. “I resent that!” I call out, running my fingers through my hair.

Gavin peeks around Jaxen and smirks knowingly at me.

Jaxen lightly shoves him back and shuts the door. He stumbles back over to the bed, falling face-first into his pillow.

I wrap my leg over him, hugging him to me. “Why can’t we just sleep in for once?” I say against the soft skin of his back.

“Because hell doesn’t allow it,” he mutters into his pillow. He rolls over, pulling me on top of him. “But you’re worth a thousand mornings of burning eyes and sleepy limbs.”

I kiss his cheek, smiling, and then force my body to get up.

“I’ll remind you of that when we’re in the middle of another of Sterling’s training sessions,” I say with a small laugh.

“And I’ll still mean it then,” he says, reaching for a shirt in his dresser.

I grab my clothes and head into the bathroom, smiling despite the fire clawing at my eyes.

The sooner I’m up and ready, the closer I’ll be to finding our way out of this hell.

MACK STANDS IN FRONT OF us with a white board on wheels perched next to him.

I’m two cups of coffee in and one yawn away from falling back asleep. Jaxen sits next to me, one hand holding a third cup of coffee, and the other resting naturally on the edge of my knee. Gavin and Cassie are behind us, whispering about something. Weldon stands with his backside resting against the kitchen counter, and Jezi sits in front of us, her head propped up on her elbow that rests on the table.

We all have one thing in common this morning, and that’s the lack of sleep marked under our eyes.

Seamus, Sterling, and Evangeline are on the other side of the table, all waiting patiently for Mack to begin the first of many meetings that will determine our Coven’s future. I try not to notice the dark, almost grayish-hue under Sterling’s eyes. Or the way his hands shake and his mouth twitches in jerky movements, like he’s struggling to stay still. Struggling to hold on to the last piece of himself that he’s fighting so hard to keep.

Weldon looks over at me, and then follows my gaze. He sighs sadly and, without saying anything, opens the fridge and pulls out a water bottle filled with what can only be blood. He makes an effort to move around the back of the table to keep the others from paying attention to what he’s doing and slides the bottle in Sterling’s hand as discreetly as he can.

Sterling looks up at him with gratitude in his eyes, and then greedily sips from the bottle.

I turn away, not wanting to stare, and force my eyes to remain on Mack. He grabs a blue marker, presses it to the white board, and writes:

1. Bring Clara down.

2. Bring down Darkyns by destroying Exanimator.

3. Restore our Coven to Divine’s natural order.

“These are our goals,” he says as he caps the marker and turns to face us all with the poised air of a diplomatic speaker. “And we will take them on one at a time, using each one to propel us onto the next.”

“And how do you propose that we do this?” Seamus asks from the rim of his coffee mug.

Mack’s lips thin into a prepared smile. “Clara’s working with the Darkyns, correct?”

“We suspect, yes,” Seamus says, setting his mug down. He lifts his chin, head tilted to the side and lips pursed. “But there hasn’t been any concrete evidence found. Just speculation, and unless we find something to pin her down and turn the rest of the Priesthood on her, we don’t have a leg to stand on.”

Mack’s smile transforms into something somewhat painful. “Clara was my partner,” he reminds us. “I know her. I know how she thinks, and I especially know how she lies. During my brief period of time working under her in Ethryeal City, I did some digging, and I found this.”

He pulls a microchip from the small pocket on his purple-and-gray argyle sweater vest.

“It’s plans to merge the Darkyns with our Coven.” He looks at me, his smile warming with knowledge. “That’s why she won’t kill anyone just for the sake of killing, Faye. Headlines are being made with every attack placed by the Darkyns. Unlike Watchmen, they’re sloppy, and humans are taking notice, which is something she can’t control. Especially without her magic. But what she can control is how she plays this game. She wants us. She wants those who pose a threat to her plans. Everyone else she needs to believe in her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have a Coven to control, and if the humans discovered us, then she wouldn’t have the funds to live comfortably with either.”

“What’s on it?” Weldon asks, pointing to the microchip.

“Phases,” Mack says. “I haven’t been able to go through the whole thing yet. I figured we could do that while the others train, but what I’ve found thus far is a precise guideline to every phase she will implement into our Coven to get what she truly wants.”

“And that is?” I ask, my heart hammering against my ribs.

“She wants to do away with the Hunters,” he says, setting the chip down on the table.

Every face in the room pales. The coffee in my stomach swirls uncomfortably. Heat builds under my skin until I’m wishing I had worn something lighter. Kill the Hunters. Do away with them permanently.

“It’s one thing after the other,” Sterling says sadly.

“She’s crazy if she thinks she can run us into the ground,” Gavin says angrily.

“This is insane,” Seamus gasps. “You’re suggesting she wants mass genocide?”

“I’m not suggesting,” Mack replies, swallowing thickly, “I’m telling you.”

Silence deafens the room as thoughts scream loudly. The chairs have been ripped out from under us all. We knew she was cruel… knew she was stuck on herself and most likely working with the Darkyns, but it never clicked in my head that she’d go this far. That she’d want something this disturbing. This unthinkable.

This final.

“But she can’t do that,” Jezi says, blinking too fast. “If she destroys Hunters, then Witches would be without power. Why would she do that?”

Mack holds his finger up to stop her train of thought. “That’s a very valid point I’m about to explain.”

Weldon clears his throat, gathering his scattered thoughts as rapidly as he can. “Then that leaves us with one question,” he says with a murderous tone. His eyes are focused and his paled face shifts gears, morphing into anger and fury. “How do we bring the bitch down?”

Mack jumps right into his theories with a new fervor, standing straighter, taller. “We already have her at a standstill with the information on the Rebellion gone and Faye out of her grasp,” he says, almost excitedly. Like he’s been waiting for this moment. For this opportunity to finally bring us together and put an end to Clara. “She knows this, which is why she’s so desperate to reach for anything that will hurt Faye and trick her into turning herself in, because she can’t get her hands on the Exanimator without both the Holy and Unholy Seals being broken. Without Faye.”

Weldon tenses at the mention of the Exanimator. His face changes like night and day, going from the hope of warmth to the extremity of cold.

“Wait—Exanimator? What does that have to do with anything?” Gavin says.

“Everything,” Mack says. “It’s why we think she’s working with the Darkyns, so she can get to the machine.”

“Which is kept in the Underground, I might add,” Seamus says. “A place we cannot enter without destroying the Unholy Seal.”

“A place and a machine that one of us in this room knows all too well,” Mack says, his eyes pinned on Weldon.

“I’m confused,” Cassie says.

“Ditto,” Gavin adds.

Weldon stiffens, and my blood boils for him. Boiling for the way Mack so easily uses Weldon’s pain as if it’s a free-for-all. He inhales loudly, like he’s accepting this as his fate. Being used. Unable to hide from his past.

“I might have a solution to the Underground problem,” he says, his voice hollow and closed off, “but Clara is all you, Mack,” he says.

Something passes between them.

“I thought you might say that,” Mack says. “At least, I hoped you would.”

“What’s going on?” Jezi asks, reaching for Weldon’s hand. “What are you two talking about?”

We all look at Weldon. He closes his eyes. Grips the edges of the counter. “I spent nearly twenty years of my life in the Underground. Twenty years that felt more like centuries.” He looks up at us, demons dwelling in his eyes as he continues. “I’ve been in the Exanimator. Seen what it can do firsthand.” He lets go of the counter and stands tall, allowing his demon side to take over his charming features.

Shadows fill the room as Seamus and Evangeline gasp.

“This,” Weldon says, his voice darker, deeper. “This is what the Exanimator does. It takes all that you are and twists it into something unnatural.”

He breathes in and, on his exhale, he returns to the Weldon we know.

“The machine sucks every bit of power out of a demon or a Witch and stores it until it’s ready to be dispersed. In my case, they picked a random demon, stole his powers, and then forced them on me by hooking me up to the machine and pumping the powers through my bloodstream.

“But that isn’t how Darkyns do it. It’s much worse. To be initiated, they must first pick the Witch they will sacrifice in the machine. The Witch they will steal powers from. Then they must force them into the machine and watch as their powers are taken and their bodies wither into ash. After that, they cut off their affinity marks, get hooked up to the machine like I was, and voila, they have magic again, only without the ties to an affinity bond.”

“And Clara thinks this machine will be able to separate affinity bonds safely so she can do away with Hunters?” Cassie asks in horror.

“Anything is possible,” Mack says coldly.

“How could such a machine come into existence?” Jezi asks, tears staining her voice as she grips Weldon’s hand.

“It has old magic operating it… Divine magic,” Weldon answers distantly.