I Am Not Junco Omnibus: Books Four - Six (91 page)

Sera was the first AI after the punishment cycle started. She was not hard to make, she had no mold to follow. She is simply Sera. But she is vengeful and selfish and was never going to calm the longing I had for the woman I watched die that day. That soul who was captured by Aesin and hidden from me. Hidden on Earth, so I’d go mad looking for her. Hidden within my grasp, almost close enough to feel. Almost.

Because I can’t stay on Earth for any length of time. My body reverts to the infected version of itself. My bat wings burst forth and everything about me changes. My calm demeanor is pushed away. I can’t stay very long at all, not without leaving to let the effects wear off for a while. High Order beings are special. But not in a good way. High Order beings are always part demon. We take a lot of planning and care to bring to maturity and even more to be productive members of society. That’s why there are so few of us.

As a young man, I was determined to never be like my father. I’d never earn a punishment cycle to cool down and think about my actions. It embarrassed me that he was so out of control.

Not all High Order beings are the same. Most are much less violent than the strain I come from. Like Gib. He’s practically docile. Not a violent bone in him. Rache is somewhere in between. He has his moments, but he’s not vindictive or sneaky.

Inanna is both vindictive, sneaky, and violent. But she can be rational when she chooses.

Aesin is just insane.

All these years I’ve depended on the actions of others. On the eyes of others. On the loyalty of others. I bred loyalty. And Tier is my greatest accomplishment. But he still has free will. And if he refuses to go through with his job, I would not be angry. In fact, I’d probably be relieved. My plans for Tier are not guaranteed. I’ve seen the end many ways, but only one will make it all worthwhile.

I suspected Junco was not who she said in the beginning, but it took me until after Deliverance to accept it. It was the Resurrection that lifted all doubts.

Junco is my first Amelia.

Her soul called to me the minute I saw her floating in the morph tank on the ship. Her auburn hair swaying, her golden wings almost fully formed. But there was no way. No possible way it could be that easy.

And it’s not.

Because she is in love with my son.

But that’s not the impossible part, because I am in love with my Amelia, the one I created, the one I’ve shared my life with. So, no. I’m not jealous of Tier and his bond with Junco. The impossible part, the cruelest joke in nature, is that I made Tier to be my weapon and Aesin took Amelia’s soul so he could make her his soldier.

I laugh a little and detect some murmurs around me. Not enough to bring me back from the pain or care what’s going on outside my own mind.

If I had known, of course… I would not…

My thought trail off. Because I would have. I would have still made all these choices. Perhaps they would’ve been harder, perhaps not. I might even have fallen in love with Junco myself, once I realized the soul within her was my first choice.

But that’s why it’s called punishment. That’s why my Amelia is locked away in another universe right now. That’s why I take no chances. I have planned for this moment. I have pieced together the song and now I will play it on the piano, like Junco did that day in my living room. Like Inanna has done with the clones. Like Crage has done with Subjack and Carolinia.

Junco has a father but he is not Subjack. He is not Aesin either. He is Crage. Just as Inanna is her mother. That’s the only way to create a High Order being. And that’s the only thing that saved this version of my Amelia’s captured soul. The High Order genetics made it possible to train her.

But we’ve made so, so many mistakes.

And Sera, Inanna, Crage, and I have not trusted each other for a very long time. Instead of working together we worked apart. Afraid that when Aesin returned he would see through us. See our plans. So the lies gushed forth like raging rivers. Lies about everything. Who belongs to which plan. I’m not sure we even know at this moment which of our plans will succeed. Or if all are necessary to complete this one last act of vengeance.

Rikan’s voice comes to me like a faraway echo.

Rikan.

I pull my thoughts away from Rikan. He will do what he will do. His part in all this is like sugar on a cookie. Just decoration, but still desirable.

They pull my body up and set me in a chair. I know this, I can feel the cold stone beneath my legs. I can hear the audience, the officiator, the judge. They retell my crimes but I don’t even bless them by opening my eyes.

I know my crimes, I do not have to be told.

They recite Gib’s crimes next. His are actually much more severe than my own. I authorized things, yes. But Gid is the engineer of the virus. He is the one who inserted it into the crops.

Rache is next. My brother. We’ve been inseparable since we were small. Like Tier and Ashur. He is Justice, he presides over the festivals, he ultimately is the one who fed the virus to everyone that day I was incapacitated on the sacrificial platform.

Oh, how they feasted!

The only ones missing are my complements, of course.

Sera. They don’t even know she exists, but they will. Very soon.

Inanna—the untouchable favorite. She must be made of fairy magic, to make them bow to her whims as she does.

Crage. My uncle who stole the new realm, built a bridge to keep us out, and then proceeded to dictate this world as well as the next by holding the truth over my head.

When did he figure out who Junco was?

When did Inanna know? All this time? She knew I was harboring my first love. She took Junco’s wings? Why?

There has to be a reason, but what it is, I have no idea. Just as she will have no idea of my reasons.

More voices from the courtroom. A fight erupts and I recognize the voice of Aesin, protesting something.

That can only be good news for me—and then the pain is gone. The restrictor releases from my spine and I slump down, fall to the side, actually, like an Aves warrior drunk off the drugs of a clutch mother.

“Lucifer,” the officiator’s voice booms through the large courtroom. “Son of Aesin, grandson of the Great Ea—”

Ea. I forgot about him. Where is that son of a bitch? He was never part of this plan. He might not even know this is happening.

Chapter Thirty-Six—ASHUR

The Stag

“What’s going on?” Selia asks me. I can almost feel her apprehension from across the room, but when I grab her hand to lead her over to the couch, she’s shaking. Junco is throwing a fit, and honestly, I can’t blame her. What are they doing with that child? I get that Tessen and Tier want to give Junco the chance to have her say, but Carolinia is way too enthusiastic about having a new demon in the house.

“Let’s just sit down and—”

Junco is in full freak-out mode over by the demon cage. She lunges for Tier, then Carolinia gets too close and Junco opens her chest with her knives. I run over to Linny and instinctively start to heal her. Junco is spinning again. This time she hooks Gideon in the face and then Tessen gets to close and she takes her out with a slap to the throat that might’ve broken her windpipe. Annun and the Fledge team rush over to help her.

Junco is still now, but her rage comes out as red light.

Linny coughs and Subjack is pleading softly for me to do something. I am doing something, but my attention is focused on Junco. I don’t need to look at Linny to heal her, but anyone who takes their eye off a pissed-off Junco is just plain stupid. And this man raised her, so I’m not sure how he can’t be worried.

The whole room is chaos with people rushing around, but oddly enough, Junco’s words are loud and clear above the din. Selia’s hand rests on my shoulder as a show of support and I can feel her fear again. Junco is pleading with Moju to let her kill the baby, Moju looks like he’d rather fight Angels than listen to the bullshit Junco is spewing right now.

And then Juncs is at the cage door. Gideon tries to stop her but that little sneak disappears, then the baby, then Tier. And then we’re all staring at an open door and a very confused guard.

“What happened?” Selia asks.

“Well.” I let out a long breath of air. “I suppose Junco understands how to stop time now. And she just stole the baby and Tier went after her.” I look down at Linny. Her eyes are open and she looks confused from the painkillers she’s absorbed from my wings. “You OK?”

“What happened?” she asks, shaking her head a little.

“Your daughter opened your chest with her claws. That’s what.” I look up at Subjack and shake my head. “Look, I get it, you guys pulled off the impossible with Junco, but I’m on her side with this baby stuff. Kill that thing. Junco is barely in control and she’s had all of us to keep her sane.”

“And that baby will have all of us
and
Junco.”

“You’re wrong, Subjack. In about an hour most of us will be dead.”

“Ashur, please, stop talking like that!” Esta is clinging to Ryse and he’s pissed off that I’m so negative, but hey, I’m a realist.

“Ashur,” Ryse growls, “you have no more idea what’s gonna happen than the rest of us, so shut your fucking mouth. If you have a death wish, go fulfill it somewhere else.”

I stand up and pull Linny with me, then hand her off to Subjack. Tessen is back with us as well. Arel healed her while I was busy with Linny and Merk is helping her to her feet. Gideon is staring at me, like he can tell I have something to say.

And I do. But I’m gonna say it to Ryse. I turn to him, his rage at me seeping out of his body like sweat. “I do know, Ryse. I know exactly what’s gonna happen. Tier’s gonna go to New Peaks. Lucan is gonna be brought there in custody. Aesin makes his triumphant return to Earth, Inanna is gonna reveal she’s been working with Aesin this whole time, and then Junco’s gonna fuck it all up and kill the wrong person. We’re gonna resort to using the Halo as a weapon and we’ve all known from the very beginning that will never work. So we all lose. Lucan gets dissipated, Inanna goes home, Aesin takes over Earth, and Junco gets to watch Tier’s limbs be pulled apart by the Angels.”

I stop because the whole place is deathly silent. Like they’ve never heard any of this before.

Hell, maybe they haven’t. Lucan’s been telling me this shit since I was a fucking kid. I’ve heard it so many times it’s not even real. Sans the part about Junco, she was just called the Seven. But what part Ryse or Arel play, I have no idea. Their names never even come up for the end game.

“You’re lying,” Ryse spits.

I laugh. “Lying? Fuck, I
wish
I was lying. This scenario came straight from Lucan. The chances of Junco actually fulfilling her part as planned by Lucan are almost nil.”

“So let’s fight them,” Pike says.

“Yeah,” Moju joins in. “Why the fuck are we out here in the middle of nowhere then?” He points to the screen on the wall. It’s been on silent since we turned it on, but you don’t need sound to see what’s happening out there beyond the Stag. There are stacks of bodies, and I do mean that literally. Stacks. In every major city on the planet. Aesin’s Angels like to pile them up for some reason, play a little King of the Mountain with the dead. Why, I have no idea. But the Book tells of all the ways in which Aesin likes to torture. It was written by Lucan himself, thousands of years ago—to record and remember the horrors this Being is capable of. The contents have been drilled into every Aves warrior from birth.

But only Arel, Ryse, and I are warriors. Real warriors, that is.

“Because Moju, we cannot fight them. It’s impossible. They hold dominion over Earth. This is not our planet, it’s…”

And just like it was planned, Aesin appears on screen. His fangs out, his knives slashing through people in New Peaks as he makes his way down to the fountain. Lucan is behind him, restrained by a device clamped to his spine. He walks alone though, so it must be turned off or tuned down. Just a threat then. I turn back to the expectant clan around me. “
His
. This planet belongs to him and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“I don’t understand, Ashur. Then what are we—”

The door opens with a creak that scares the shit out of all of us and Tier walks through carrying his two sleeping demons. His gaze tracks across our group and then it rests on me.