Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (85 page)

“
A
o
d
h,”
I murmur.

“
A
o
d
h
taught him that,” Tau says. “
A
o
d
h taught him never to turn
anyone more powerful
.
Brennus killed his own maker
, didn’
t he?”
Tau asks.

“Yes,”
I reply softly.

“
You give
Russell
to Brennus and he will kill Russell
.
Let me help you,” Tau says
gently.

I bridle
at his words. “No th
anks, I got this one,” I reply
bitterly.

Tau’s eyes instantly fill
with worry.
“I know that you don’t trust me—
”

“
Trust you?” I ask
with a salty edge in my tone. “I can hardly stand being near you. I want to shed you like dead skin.”

My father’s eyebrows pull
together in concern. “You don’t wan
t me to leave you,” he counters. “You feel that
I betrayed you, but that isn’t the case. I only wan
ted to protect you,” he reasons
in a gentle tone.

“Don
’t tell me how I feel,” I rasp. I flick
the clas
p to the pin-portal open. It lays
docilely in my palm.
Shifting my eyes to Anya, I say
, “Anya,
you should go first. W
hen you get to
the other side, pull me through.
”

She nods
, bursting almost instantly into small, speckled ladybugs
. The normally lumbering bugs are anything but as they pull
themselves agilely through the small opening in the pin.

Tau’s voice is filled
with agitation, “Evie, stay with us! Brennus will not honor any
agreement that he made with you—
”

“I know that,” I c
ut him off. “He’s a known enemy—
just like you.”

“I
’m not your enemy!” Tau retorts
harshly, his eyes b
ecoming a dark and stormy gray.

“Now who’s being
naïve?” I ask
him hotly, wanting
to hurt him. “I’m so relieved
to be getting away from you
,
and if Brennus does manage to turn me, watch your back because
you’ll make a good first kill!”

“EVIE!” Tau growls my name
, losing all pretense of being cool, while pounding viciously against the barrier with his fists.

His despera
tion to stop me from leaving does
something
to my heart; it hurt
s
like he’
s squeezing it
in his fist. Xavier joins him, hurting himself as he dri
ve
s
his shoulder into the unforgiving obstacle in front of him.
Energy flares b
ack at me in bursts. It burns
as they push the barrier between us. I struggle to hang
on to the energy so my wall won’
t crumble again.

Tau’s frustration ri
ng
s in each word as he says
, “You don’t know what you’re saying! You’
re more precious than any of us—
”

“Precious?” I laugh
without humor.
“You only see me as a weapon.
”

“I
see you as my daughter!” Tau states
.

My heart twists again as my throat ge
t
s
even tighter. “You’re very good at strategy. I almost be
lieved for a second that I mean something to you,” I breathe
in a shallow tone.

Xavier, beside Tau, says
urgently, “Can’t you see what you mean to us? You stretch the very limits of our control, Evie.”

I feel hollow
:
as thin as air. “You had a chance to help me, but instead
,
you drugged me and tied me up.
You have made it imp
o
ssible for me to trust you
,” I say, my throat raw now.
I stare in
to his eyes as his mouth twists
in pain. “Go back to your cloud, Xavier. I don’t want you here.”

“The only way I’ll go again
is i
f you come with me,” he promises
me, resting his hand against the barrier.

The air shifts
direction abruptly, stirri
ng my hair. “
Xavier, we’
re
so
over
,” I say
in a s
oft voice.

“
You’
re wrong,” he says with a growl. “We’ve just started.”

Reaching down, I lay
the open pin on top
of
the silken coverlet next to me.

Both Xavier and Tau growl
at me, tensing like racers before the starting gun. When I distort, I won’t be able to hold them back from me. It will be a race to the other side of the portal. Whoever gets there first, wins. With my heart thumping sharply and my
palms sweating, my mind chants silently:
On your mark, get set….

Your Heart Grows Cold

Russell

Rubbin’ my sweaty palms on the coarse, blue denim c
overin’ my knees, my leg bounce
s
up and down
involuntarily. I stare
at
the
X
-shaped
portal propped open against the far wall of the library.
Sunlight, streamin’ in the
floor-to-ceilin’, lead
ed
-
glass windows, falls
like a spotlight on
it.
The
reflected
light from its
tarnished metal highlights
the
dust
motes
dancin’
‘
round it
.

As far as portals go, this one
’
s the sneakiest
that
I’ve
ever
encountered. Housed in
Brownie’s
cheap-lookin’
soror
ity p
lacard, the dull, chi
-
shaped
,
Greek
letter
made from chrome
hid
es
the
contour
s of distorted space within it
.

I lean
forward in my seat on the soft,
brown
leather sofa faci
n’ it. A low, menacin’
growl from my right
makes
me still for a second
and grip
the arm of the sofa tight.
“
D
o not make me throw you out of this room,
Russell,
” Zephyr
says
from his seat adjacent to
mine in Reed’s library.

I still
.
“I’d like to see you
try,” my
g
rowl
is
sinister
, but I do
n’t move toward the portal.
It onl
y takes
a moment more for my leg
to start bouncin’
agitatedly
again.

Brownie’s voice co
me
s
from the other
end of the sofa. “She’ll get Evie
.
Anya is cunning—
”

“If anythin’ happens to Anya
,” I retort
, “I’m blamin’
you
, Brownie.”

“ME!” Brownie says
incredulously. “
It was Anya’s
plan!”

“And, y
ou
gave
her the portal to do it!” I say
betwee
n my teeth. “You
should’ve protected her.”

“
S
weetie, s
he
’s
a Throne,” Buns points
out from her seat next to Zee
’s
. “She outranks us.”

I scowl
at Buns. “Ahh, don’t even go there,
Buns! I know you
can give two
figs ‘bout rank when it suits you
.”

“True,” Buns replies unrepentant
ly
.
“I also happen to know a good plan when I hear it.”

My brow creases
dangerously. “How is it a good plan to leave her there unprotected?” I sho
ot back
with my leg bouncin’ twice as fast.

“S
he’s with an army of Power
s,” Brownie says
in a gentle tone.

“And what’re they gonna do to her when they find out that she’s tryin’ to liberate Red?” I ask
Brownie pointedly.
“What’s the penalty f
or treason in your
world?”
Brownie has
the decency
to pale.
“Right! T
hat’s what I thought!” I sneer
at her speechless expre
s
sion, while boltin’ to my feet.

Instantly Zephyr i
s in front of me, blockin’ my direct line to
t
he portal with his killer-
blue stare. “Do not lose your head.”

My wings pin
back, just like the ears on
a cat. “You better move ‘
cuz you’
re
fixin’ to lose you
rs.”

Zee braces
for my attack, adoptin’ a defensive posture.

Buns moves
quickly in front of Zephyr
with an
implorin’ expression. “T
hey won’t hurt her…Xavier and Anya are close
. She insisted that h
e’d never let them harm her—
”

“You
also said that
Xavier
and Red had a thing before comin’ here. If that’s true, then Xavier will prot
ect Red by any means necessary,” I reply
, while tryin’ to pick up on any weaknesses in Zephyr’s stance.

“Sweetie
,” Buns says calmly, “y
ou haven’t eaten since we’ve gotten back to Cres
twood. Let me fix you something.
”

“I’m not hungry,” I say
chil
dishly, while my stomach rumbles
in retort.

Buns put
s
her hands on he
r hips and
tap
s
her toe.
“Oh no?” she asks
like a bratty little sister. “Then you can help us clean up this place!”

She cast
s
her hands ‘
round Reed’s e
legant library, indicatin’ that it
’
s
cover
ed
in dust.
From
the look of the place, no one has
been here to clean since Dominion hauled Reed and Zephyr away
to their compound
to question them about Evie—
whe
n Pagan thought Evie
was a Nephilim
. Even though m
ost of the
stuff in this room i
s untouched
, the rest of the house was ransacked by the Gancanagh when they were
lookin’ for Evie’s possession
s for Brennus’ collection.

I
fo
und all of the clothes that I
left in my room upstairs thrown on t
he floor and strewn over my
bed.
But, even without the mess, j
ust be
in’ back in
Reed’s
Crestwood
estate
is surreal; maybe kind of
like r
eturnin’ to a childhood home
. I’
d moved in here when I was j
ust startin’ to become an angel—
after Freddie had tried to kill Red and me
and reap her soul.

I was a baby when I lived here
before
, just beginnin’ to evolve angelic tr
aits and abilities. Zee had begu
n my trainin’ in the dinin’
room just down the hall. It feels
like a lifetime ago. I’ve been
‘
round the world since then…chased by mo
nsters I never dreamed existed.