Matter of Truth, A (22 page)

Will slides the folder away, flipping it shut. “Believe it
or not, Dad is on the phone with that woman—Astrid? They’re
chatting
. My
father is on the
phone
, and he’s
chatting
with a woman. I cannot
be out there listening to this any longer.” He eyes me warily. “Have you called
him?”

I blink and try to focus on Will’s face. How had I never
seen the Elvin features in him before? Was it just because I didn’t want to?
“Your dad?”

He rolls his eyes. “No. You know I mean Jonah.”

Something inside me breaks again. I shake my head slowly.
“He doesn’t want me to call. He made it clear that he’s done with me.”

Will’s dubious. “You two have a Connection.”

“We also apparently have free will. Jonah,”—each syllable of
his name is a jagged shard of glass against the tender yet still beating muscle
in my chest—“exercised his right to choose whether or not he wants to be with
me.”

He sighs heavily through his nose. “I don’t think that’s the
case. I think it’s more—you hurt him. He’s reacting.”

“I don’t want to talk about this. Not today, at least. We
should be overlooking the mission specs.” I snatch the folder back from him.

“Out of curiosity, why aren’t you with Kellan?”

The folder turns heavy in my hand. “What?”

“When you first told me about these guys, and how you
cheated on Jonah with his brother, I’ve gotta be honest, I assumed you were
with Jonah out of a misplaced sense of obligation and habit. It was Kellan I
thought you really loved. But . . .” His hand falls on top of mine. “Here you
are, single. He’s single. I saw you guys earlier. He’s so in love with you that
it’s amazing he can even stand upright. You’re pretty keen on him, too. Isn’t
this the perfect opportunity to at least
try
to see what things would be
like with him?”

Ah. Which is what I think Kellan hopes for, too. Or at
least, it’s what I saw in his eyes when he left, even though he must have
sensed how I felt about him, about his brother. We didn’t hug—it would’ve been
too much, too soon. But that sharp tug between Connections was there, strong as
ever, and when he walked out of my door, the instinct to go after him and kiss
him senseless nearly smothered me.

“I love Jonah,” I tell Will. My voice is hollow, which makes
sense, as it’s how I’m feeling right now. But it’s okay. Because I’m going to
go out and kick some ass and kill some Elders and I’ll find ways to fill up
that hole. I have to.

Most of the team is already waiting at an airstrip in
Novosibirsk, Siberia. A Cyclone I don’t know (apparently Raul is on an extended
vacation) will be piloting us to the remote region the Elders have been spotted
in. Two Shamans I don’t know too well are there (Zthane wasn’t taking any
chances), as well as a pair of Blazes (Brock and Vance?) and a female Elemental
I don’t know. Outside of Karl, Will, and myself, the last member of the team is
Kellan, which does not make me happy in the least. I argued for a good ten
minutes with Zthane and Karl over his participation, but outside of me claiming
I worried my Connection could get hurt, I had no real ground to stand on when
it came to dismissing him from the team.

“Emotionals have always been successful controlling the
Elders,” Zthane reasoned repeatedly. “You know me. Besides, Kellan’s the best
we have on the Guard. Of course he’s coming.” The thing is, I understood where
Zthane was coming from, and agreed even, but the thought of Kellan getting hurt
made me want to destroy things.

I caved in the end and agreed to his addition to the team,
but it’s definitely left me on edge. This, coupled with the sharp pain of
losing Jonah once more has me antsy and admittedly far too bitchy. Will and
Karl bear the brunt of my constant snapping fairly serenely as we exit the
airport, inside of which the portal is conveniently hidden, and onto the
tarmac, but I guess I step on one too many toes because Will finally says,
“Time to sheath the claws, Chloe, lest you want the entire team to think you’re
on your period.”

“That is incredibly sexist of you, Will,” I snarl in return.

Karl laughs, but I don’t. Just what if today goes badly?
Lee’s told us there are four Elders in the region, and with a team this large,
the odds are stacked in our favor. But I can’t help but worry that something
will go wrong, that somehow those things will get the best of me and take me
out, leaving the rest of the team defenseless out in the wilderness of Siberia.

Must. Stay. Focused.

Which means, of course, I wonder what Jonah is doing right
now, where he is, how he’s dealing with everything. I laid down the law with
Zthane last night that, while I was caving and allowing Kellan to come, there
was no way in hell I’d approve both Whitecombs on the mission. He tried for it,
of course he did—the twins have proved to be highly effective together against
the Elders in the past. But if I had to contend with attempting to protect both
of them and Jonah’s snubbing all at the same time while trying my best to kill
these monsters, I don’t know if I could do it. It’s bad enough Will’s here,
being so perilously fragile in his non-Magical state (not that I’d ever admit
that out loud to him, though) but Zthane figured that, after being so effective
against the Elders in the last two fights, Will should come because he has
experience against these monsters that nobody else on the team, save me and
Karl, have.

“According to Erik, there’s a small Métis colony about two
hundred miles south,” Karl tells me as we approach the military plane the
Guards has absconded for the mission. “So I don’t think we can term this Elder
sighting as random.”

“Shite,” Will mutters. He adjusts his sunglasses in the
bright morning light. “How many?”

“Colonists or Elders?” When Will indicates the Métis, Karl
continues, “Four families—like I said, small, but no number is small enough
when you have these things gunning for them.”

“There was an attack, wasn’t there?” Will asks quietly.

Karl sighs heavily, his mouth a bleak line. And then he
nods.

My stomach heaves. “Anybody hurt?”

Karl readjusts the straps of his backpack and stares
straight ahead. “Three-year-old twins and their mother were in the car that the
Elders targeted. Only the little girl made it—her brother and mom are dead
thanks to these monsters, not to mention a family of four that were nons in a
nearby car.”

“Christ,” Will whispers.

“They were first generation Métis,” Karl tells us as he
waves at the pilot in the distance. “Erik says the Métis governing bodies
believe that the closer the bloodlines are to Magicals, the more likely they
become targets. These kids—” He shakes his head swiftly. “Their mom left Annar
about a decade ago for their dad. She was a lower level Elemental. And now
there’s a little girl who doesn’t have her mom or her twin.”

I can’t even wrap my mind around such a tragedy. This needs
to stop. People—Magicals, Métis, and nons alike—should be safe from these
monsters. And I’m reminded of a promise I made long ago, to Earle Locust-tree,
who’d lost his husband to the Elders and then was attacked by them himself. And
now he’s gone, along with the rest of the team that fought to protect me, and
I’m left with the promise that I wouldn’t give up trying to stop these
monsters.

I hope to do him proud today.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been removed
from Annar for awhile, and maybe it’s because, other than with Callie Lotus, I
haven’t really been around such a situation before, but I’m shocked at the
level of hostility and distrust coming from the team inside the plane that’s
angled toward Will. Well—not from Kellan, who isn’t here yet, since he’s en
route directly from another mission nearby, but from the rest of the team, yes.
They’re regarding Will with wary eyes, whispering to one another like his
presence is unwanted and unnecessary. Every so often I catch snatches of what
they’re saying; ugly words about how he’s a non, a freak, how his presence is
most likely some kind of appeasement offering toward me, float throughout the
belly of the plane.

It’s infuriating, not to mention insulting. I would never
have been able to do what I’ve done without Will’s help and guidance.

For his part, Will pretends to ignore them, although I know
it’s got to be driving him crazy. He sits in the web seat next to me, settling
the sword I’ve made him in between his legs so he can swing it around in a wide
arc as we chat about our friends back in Alaska.

I try to follow his lead, but when I hear some kind of
innuendo about how he must surely be some kind of toy I picked up while out
“sowing my wild oats,” I can’t hold my fury back any longer. “What the hell are
your problems?” I shout.

The plane goes deathly quiet. Karl and the Cyclone (I think
his name is Flip?) stick their heads out of the cockpit, from where they’d been
discussing the flight plan.

Will’s hand finds my arm. His voice is flat when he says,
“Don’t bother.”

“What’s going on?” Karl demands. But he knows. I can tell by
the look on his face he already knows what has me pissed off.

I don’t care what Will thinks. How they’re acting, what
they’re saying—it’s
wrong
. “This is the team you guys picked for me?”
I’m practically seething as Karl and Flip fully enter the body of the plane.
“These are the people you think I can trust?”

“Who does this little girl think she is?” snarls the
Elemental I don’t know.

Before Karl can say anything, I stand up, pressing a hand
against the side of the plane. “I’m the person who will get your sorry ass
demoted to some desolate city to work on thunderstorms for the rest of your life
if you don’t watch your mouth.”

She stands up, too, clearly pissed off. “I don’t answer to
you.”

“Lola, sit down.” Karl’s tone leaves no room for bargaining
on her end.

It’s at that moment that Kellan boards the plane, his hair
messy from the wind and dark circles ringing his eyes from what was no doubt
precious little sleep in his effort to make it here on time. “Sorry I’m—” The
tug between us is sharp and sudden. His focus lands on me, those gorgeous blue
eyes of his widening in surprise. And then they narrow as they turn to Karl.
“What is Chloe doing here?”

“This is my question,” Lola snarls. She’s got full-on bitch
face going. “Because this Council princess thinks she can—”

Kellan’s eyes flash with anger. “Don’t even think of
finishing that sentence, Lola.”

Shocked, Lola finally does as Karl says and sits down.

But I’m done with this. How is this going to play if they’re
going to be fighting me and Will the whole way? “If this is how it’s going to
be,” I say to Karl, “then get me Zthane on the phone right now so I can tell
him to send this group of jackasses straight back to Annar. I don’t need them.”
A quick glance at Will has me correcting that. “
We
don’t need them.”

Karl rubs at his hair. I know he’s in a difficult position,
but my nerves, so freshly raw from the return to Annar, won’t let this go. “You
know having a team gives us our best shot.”

“Really?” I let out an ugly laugh. “That’s funny, because
Will and I did just fine on our own.”

Will groans in frustration, but before he can say anything,
Kellan steps in between us. “Can we all just calm down a minute so we can
figure out what’s going on here? Chloe, what are you talking about?”

The Electric sitting next to Lola—Vance, I think—says in
this awful, condescending tone, “Dude. She brought a
non
on the
mission.”

Will’s finally had enough, because he finally wades in.
“Wow. Karl, I’m going to concur with Chloe. Bigoted prats will not help us no
matter how good you say they are.”

“Not. Another. Word,” Karl snaps at Vance. And then, to the
rest of the team, “The next person who speaks out of turn will be physically
removed from this plane, mission, and most likely the Guard. Councilwoman
Lilywhite was absolutely right in her statement that she can have any of your
sorry asses demoted at any point. I’m sorry that we did not make it clear
prior, due to security reasons, but Councilwoman Lilywhite runs this mission.
What she says, goes. You have a problem? There’s the door.”

That gets their attention.

“You were informed that this was an Elders mission—that much
is true,” Karl continues. “Four hostiles were spotted in the region as early as
twelve hours prior by Lee Acacia. However, you were not given the true mission
specs. This is not merely recon.” Flip slips out from behind him and sits down
on the other side of Will, which is relief. If he shows he has no problem with
Will being here, then maybe the rest of the team will take pause.

Karl crosses his arms, his tone completely no-nonsense now.
“Before we discuss them, there’s something that needs to be made clear. This is
a top-secret assignment. No details of any part of what transpires today may be
revealed to any person outside of this aircraft.” He lifts his chin briefly
toward Kellan, tapping his forehead. “No one else is cleared for this.
No
one
. Understood?”

Kellan’s eyes widen again in surprise. Karl’s ordering him
to not even tell Jonah, not even their way, in their heads. But he nods and
offers his assent, just as every other person on the plane does, but it’s me he
chooses to focus on.

I try not to squirm in my seat under his intense gaze,
because with this group, I need to stay strong. The Guard will annihilate the
feeblest members of their teams, because to them, weakness is not an option in
the field.

“Another thing that needs to be made clear,” Karl is saying,
“is that you, in no way, will spew any more of that prejudiced crap toward Will
Dane. His participation in this mission is vital, and it has nothing to do with
Councilwoman Lilywhite’s wishes. Both Nightstorm and I have determined that his
expertise in this arena is critical toward our success today.” He pauses, then
delivers the next line with deft precision. “I have never been as ashamed of
any team of mine as I am at this moment.”

I try not to laugh at the panicked horror that flashes across
nearly every face in the plane. As for me, I’m nearly bursting with pride that
Karl is the stand-up man I always thought he was.

The Blaze, Brock, asks in a quiet, low voice tinged with a
Southern accent, “Pardon me, sir, but what kind of expertise can a non lend us
on an Elders recon?”

But it’s Kellan that answers first. “He’s not a non.” A
ghost of a smile graces his lips. “Will Dane is a Métis, which means he’s part
Magical. He’s also Molly Hellebore’s son, so he deserves your respect.”

Will stiffens next to me as a collective gasp pings off the
metal walls. And then he asks, voice low and carefully controlled to sound
bored, “And you know that, how?”

Kellan’s amused. “Did you really think, after everything
that’s gone down, I wouldn’t dig up every last piece of dirt on you I could?”

Oh. My. Gods. Seriously? I hiss, “Kellan!”

He’s totally unapologetic, though.

Vance clears his throat. “Hellebore was a wicked good Smith.
What’s she up to nowadays?”

Will’s stare is stony. “She’s dead.”

“Oh, man—I’m sorry,” Vance says quietly. It’s obvious he’s
grossly uncomfortable, but after what’s just gone down, I have no pity for him.

“We were discussing the mission that Councilwoman Lilywhite
is leading us on,” Kellan says to Karl. It’s impossible to miss the annoyance
lacing his words, especially as he offers up my official title. Last year, when
I served as bait on an Elders mission, he’d begged me not to go. Tried to
blackmail me. In the end, I went, but if today’s anything like then, he’s just
as pissed off I’m here as I am with his presence.