Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (61 page)

Brennus had ordered me
to avoid this room
because the elite fellas used it as a kind of gentlemen’s club.
Just being in here
makes
me feel disobedient.
Suddenly, the realization that
I’m stranded once again in my
elegant prison begi
n
s
to creep over me, causing goose
bumps to rise on my skin.
My throat tightens as the oppressive walls creep
closer around me.
My hand goes to my neck as it search
es
for the moon pendant
that used to hang
there, but it’s gone
, incinerated on the island along with
several of the fellas that used to call this home.

“Are you okay?” Ree
d asks
worriedly.

“I’m fine,” I murmur
with a small smile. “I’ll go sit with Anya for a
while.”

O
n shaky legs, I move towards Anya’s chair. She doesn’t look up when I near her, but continue
s
to gaze
hazily
at the fire. I do
n’t bother pulling the other cha
ir nearer to hers. Instead, I si
t down on the floor
in front of her chair and lean
my
back next to her legs to watch
the fire with her. When she does
n’t
object to my presence, I reach up and take
her hand in mine, resting my ch
eek against her knee. It occurs
to me that maybe
she i
s the only other being
that can
possibly know how I feel.

I’m not sure how
long we si
t ther
e
like that,
holding hands,
but I look up when Russell lifts Anya into his arms and then si
t
s
back down in her seat with her on his lap.

“Stop lookin’
at the fire with that doll-eye
stare, Red. Y
ou’
r
e
startin’ to freak me out,” Russell
says
as he st
r
okes
Anya’s long, dark hair.

“I do not have a doll-eye
stare,” I reply
, blinking my eyes that have gone dry.

“Yeah
,
right
! M
y sister Scarlett’s
American Girl
dolls
have
more of an
expression than eithe
r of y’all,” he replies
. “And they were
adopted.”

I smile, forgetting where I am
for a second
.
“I was thinking,” I say
, straightening up and s
tretching my legs that are
numb.

“Good, ‘cuz I’ve been th
inkin’,
too, and I’m thinkin’ you’
r
e
not allowed anywhere near that room with the knight’s armor in
front of it without me,” he says
agitatedly.

“The kirk—
u
h, the Knight’s Bar?” I ask
, paying closer attentio
n to him. He looks really tired—
older.

“That’s the one,” Russell says,
running his hand through his tawny hair.
“
I just had to walk by it and
all
my hair stood straight up on my a
rms like som
e
thin’ walked ‘cr
oss my grave,” he explains
.

“You are not dead
,
yet
,” Anya says softly,
looking him ov
e
r to make sure her assessment i
s correct.

“I
t’s an expression,” he explains
gently
.
“I just meant that it was toxic
with bad energy. Zee went in while I waited out in the hallwa
y, but he couldn’t find anythin’
. I think I’m gonna n
eed you
r help if we go in there. There’s somethin’ not right ‘bout it.”

“Let’s not go
i
n
there
, then,” I reply
with
my eyes widening
in
concern
.
“
There are plenty of other rooms around here
for us
to play in
.”

“Deal,”
Russell
agrees
so quickly
,
it makes
me nervous.
“I’ll stay out
if you
do.”

“I really wouldn’t mind never
seeing th
e inside of that room
again
, anyway.
” I reply
, remembering being shot in that room by Casmir before I nearly destr
oyed
it with a spell. In that room,
Brennus was forced to free me from the
magical
contract that bound us together.

“We thought you
’d feel that way, so we’re cleanin’ up the East and South Towers. Y
ou
weren’t allowed in th
em when y
ou
were here,
so they should be less painful—
less memories fo
r you
to deal with,” Russell says
.

“Thanks, Russ,” I murmur
, choked up by his thoughtfulness.

“It w
as Reed’s idea,” Russell replies
.
“And then frick and frack t
oo
k the ball and ran with it. You’
r
e
gonna be in the Harem
Tower
whether you
like it or not ‘cuz
the Reapers
freaked when they saw it.
I mean they
freaked
in a good way
,” he adds
for Anya’s benefit.

“So, ‘freaked’
can be good and bad?” Anya asks
softly, with her head still listlessly resting against Russell’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I know it’s
confusin’, but you’
r
e
so quick, you
’ll have it in no time,” he says
, using his sweetest, most charming tone.

“What is frick and frack?” Anya asks
, seeming to be sn
apping out of the fog that she has
been in
.

“Ah, that’
d
be
Buns and Bro
wnie,” he smiles,
brushing her hair behind her ear
tenderly
.

“When did they get here
?” I ask.

“
Not long before you
,
but they came in like a couple of generals. T
hey’ve been
givin’
orders to the Powers—
makin’ them move furniture ‘rou
n
d, which is kinda funny ‘cuz you
know they’re strong enough
to do it themselves,” he smirks
. “I
just think they enjoy tellin’ th
em what to do.”

“How
’s that going over?” I ask
.

“S
hoot, they
’
ve
got those
angels followin’
th
em ‘round like they’re presents that need openin’
,” Russell winks. “Did you
expect less?”

“No,” I reply
.
“That sounds about right.”

“Naw, those
two’ve got the
world on a string,” Russell smiles
.
“They’ve been down in the kitchen, too, plannin’
so
me kind of
pizza party or other. It s
ou
nded good to me—
I’m half-
starvin’.
I just came up here to get Anya. Y
ou
w
ant to eat with us?” he asks
.

“I can’t,” I say
with a sigh of regret. “I’m supposed to have dinner with Tau, but could you please take Reed and m
ake sure he eats something?” I look
across the room to see Reed sitt
ing with some other Power
. My eyes me
e
t his an
d I ge
t the impression that he has
been watching me for a
while
—
maybe even the whole time
.

Russell follows my gaze to Reed, and says
, “He’s worried
‘bout us bein’ here. Maybe you
can talk to you
r dad ‘bout it and
find out the game plan.
”

“Sure, maybe I’ll bring it up after I ask him to te
ll me how he met my mom,” I scoff
with a sarcastic twist of my lips.

“Your
mother
is his
aspire
,” Anya murmurs
, causing both
our eyes to lock on Anya’s
face. Seeing my strained expression,
An
ya adds
, “I
met her
only
once, but she wa
s very good...
u
rr, kind?
”

Russ
ell nods. His eyes ar
e as
round as mine when I look
at him.

“Now that’s freaky
—
a
nd I’m not
even gonna guess if it’s good freaky or bad freaky
,” Russell breathes
before looking at Anya.
“Y
ou
met her mom?” he prompts
.

Anya
shrugs
“For a small time.”

“Briefly?” I ask
.

“Briefly,” Anya
accepts
the correction
. “S
he had just transitioned back from
Eart
h. S
he’s an old soul, very sage-u
rr, wise?” she asks
us
.

“Yeah, that’s the right word
,” Russell says with a “holy shit”
expression that I’m
totally
sharing.

“What was her name?” I ask
Anya. I want
clarity;
I want proof of her knowledge.

“I get so confused. Y
ou are meaning
‘
is,
’ correct? She is, not was. She exists—
not a
s
past tense,” she replie
s,
shaking her head. “I do not know her
Earth name, but she is known as—”
and then Anya
says
a word in Angel th
at crudely sounds like “
Vivian
,” but she dra
w
s it out so that it’
s lyrical
—
more
beautiful
than I can express
with human syllables
.

My hear
t lurches
in my chest
as what Anya
relate
s shakes
me to the core. I have always thought of everything to
do with Paradise as an abstract—i
t exists, but as a distant concept or destination
.
It wa
s like envisioni
ng a far-off place
, like M
ars or a moon of Saturn. One could certainly go there
if one met the
requirements to exist on that
plane.
Bu
t, because I had never known my mother
, could never envision her
beyond the pictures I’d
seen of her
, she never really existed for me. She was not
,
and never could be, real
…until now.

“W
hat…what did you two talk about—
w
hen you met?” I ask Anya while other questions tumble
around in my mind.

“
She leave you behind—
she cannot protect you
like she wanted to…and she leave her
aspire
, too—
very…hard?” she asks
.