The Inquisitor's Mark (15 page)

Dorian tossed him the keys, but the knob turned by itself, and the door opened. Jax looked up into the face of a tall man in a lab coat with piercing blue eyes—Kin eyes. His complexion was pale, but his hair was a very un-Kin jet black and pulled into a ponytail.

Jax peered around him. “Addie?” he yelled.

Somebody moved in the semidarkness, reacting to his
shout. Someone with blond hair. The man pulled the door shut, cutting off Jax's glimpse of the room's occupant. “What are you doing here?” he asked coldly. “Dorian? Why did you bring him down here?”

“Dad said . . . um . . .” Dorian's voice faded away as he groped for a lie that would explain their presence in the basement in the middle of the night with a ring of keys.

Jax's hopes sank.
That was a FAIL, Dorian
.

“Dr. Morder!” a man called from behind Dorian. “Everything all right?”

“I don't think so,” the man in the lab coat replied. “These boys need to be taken upstairs to see Ursula.”

Nope. Jax was not going to visit Ursula and get his memory wiped. He launched himself
toward
the security man. With a dead end behind him, it was the only way out.

The guard held out both arms like a linebacker. Jax barreled straight for the guy, then rolled himself into a ball at the last second and hit him in the knees. The man staggered but grabbed a fistful of T-shirt. Jax rolled to his feet, and his momentum pulled him free.

He knew he'd never outrun this guy on the stairs, and there was probably another guard above. His best chance was the brownie hole. It was invisible, but Jax remembered its position in the corridor. He'd dive into it and—

Jax yelped as a weight crashed into him from behind. His knees hit the concrete
hard
, and his chin next. The force jarred his teeth together.

“Kid,” said a voice in his ear, “I have a Taser. Don't make me use it.”

Jax went limp. He'd been Tasered before and had no desire to experience it again.

Dr. Morder marched Dorian around the corner with one hand on the collar of his shirt. The other hand, slim and pale, held a radio. “You may have just seen them go up in the elevator,” he was saying in an unhurried voice, “but they are here
now
. Yes, that's
exactly
what it means. Please let Ursula know to expect them.” He paused. “No, don't alert Finn Ambrose. Ursula will call him when she wants him.”

The look of fear on Dorian's face let Jax know that, as much as he distrusted Uncle Finn, they were going to be worse off meeting Ursula Dulac without his protection.

NO ONE BOTHERED TO
hold Dorian on the elevator, although Albert Ganner and one of his brothers both kept their hands on Jax. Dorian was expected to stand in the corner, obedient and quiet, because that was what he'd always been.

Obedient and quiet.

Jax, meanwhile, kept trying to throw off the grip of his guards. He glared at them and wiped his bloody chin with the back of his hand. Dorian couldn't believe the way he'd run straight for Albert, trying to knock him down like a bowling pin. It had been stupid. Completely stupid and pointless and brave.

And I just stood there
.

Aunt Ursula was waiting for them when the elevator arrived at the penthouse. Her son Daniel stood beside her, and behind them, Sloane. No one would've guessed they'd all been roused from their beds, and Sloane—dressed in a short
skirt and a glittery top with her hair pinned up—probably hadn't been. If Dorian knew his cousin, she'd just come back from clubbing. Not dancing in the plaza at Rockefeller like Lesley, but schmoozing with other Very Important Transitioners at a private club.

What did you do
? Sloane mouthed at Dorian.

Aunt Ursula cast a cold look at her errant nephews. “What were they up to, Ganner?”

“Dr. Morder said they were trying to get into the room with . . . uh . . . our guest. They had these.” Albert Ganner held up Dad's keys.

“Not your guest,” said Jax. “Your prisoner. The girl you have locked up in your nasty old cellar. The same place I'm guessing you wanted to put my liege lady.”

“How did you know she was there?” Aunt Ursula glanced at Dorian.

“
He
didn't tell me,” Jax said. “I'm an Emrys vassal. I felt her presence.” Aunt Ursula scrutinized Jax, then looked back at Dorian. “I
made
him help me,” Jax added loudly. “I said I'd beat him up if he didn't.”

Dorian swallowed. Was Jax trying to protect him?

“Bring them in here.” Aunt Ursula turned and led the way down the hall. The Ganners had to haul Jax bodily into Ursula's office, his feet dragging behind him.

“You old bat,” Jax shouted at Aunt Ursula. “I'm not afraid of you.”

Dorian had no doubt now. Jax was trying to draw all her
anger toward himself and away from Dorian.

“I've been patient with you,” Aunt Ursula said. “But you are distressingly like your father.” She addressed the Ganners. “Hold him still.” She laid her hands on his head.

Jax fought.

It sickened Dorian, seeing how hard his cousin fought. At first Jax stiffened, like he was trying to resist her mentally. Then he panicked. His body thrashed as he tried to get away from her hands. He kicked wildly. Albert and his brother shifted their positions, pinning Jax's arms and legs. Daniel moved in to help.

This was worse, way worse, than watching Sloane manipulate Billy's parents into believing their son was going off to golf camp when he was really passed out in the back of Dad's car with the bone protruding from his arm. It was worse than erasing the entire memory from Billy's mind.

Because Jax knew what was happening to him and was fighting it with all his strength.

“Sloane!” Aunt Ursula called sharply.

Sloane went to assist her grandmother. She laid her hand on Jax's head, and when her strength was added to the attack, he stopped kicking and went limp in their hands.

When Dad showed up, he looked annoyed to be kept from his bed. But at his first glimpse of Dorian, he stumbled over his own feet and glanced over his shoulder in a double take.
Dorian realized his father had left their apartment completely certain that all three boys were there.

We probably were
, Dorian thought, remembering his father's voice on the radio before he and Jax snuck out.

Dad's eyes passed over Dorian to Jax, sitting on a sofa next to Sloane with an ice pack on his chin. “What's going on?” he asked, his eyes darting between Jax and Dorian and his aunt.

“The boys have been on an adventure,” Aunt Ursula said.

Jax looked up. “Sorry, Uncle Finn. We shouldn't have, but when Dorian told me about the brownie tunnels, I couldn't resist.”

Dad licked his lips nervously. “Aunt Ursula, we agreed—”

“We tried it your way, Finn, and nearly had a disaster on our hands.” She tossed him his keys. He caught them and stared at them, flabbergasted. “Jax is seeing things our way now.” Aunt Ursula smoothed Jax's wavy hair. “Aren't you?”

Jax didn't pull his head away or glare at her or anything he would normally have done. “I'm sorry I caused so much trouble,” he said. “I didn't trust you when I first came, but that's because Riley lied to me.”

“We understand,” Aunt Ursula reassured him.

“He didn't want me to know I had a decent family I could be living with instead of him,” Jax said. “And
she
didn't want to lose her
vassal
.” He spat out the word like it meant the same as slave.

“You realize how dangerous it is for her to be running
around loose,” Aunt Ursula said.

Jax dropped the ice bag into his lap. “You bet I do! I was there when the world nearly ended. We were
that
close!” He held up his thumb and finger a quarter inch apart. “Can you get me free of her? And Riley? He's got custody papers, but he must've forced Dad to sign them.”

“Yes, Jax,” Dad said. “Of course, we'll get your custody away from him. It's what we've wanted all along. But you've got to help us with your liege lady first.” Dorian stared at the floor. Dad had said he didn't want this, but he was going to use it anyway, now that it had happened.

“I want out of my bond,” Jax said. “She forced me into it.”

“Do you know where she is?” Aunt Ursula asked.

“She's here, and so is Riley!” Jax said triumphantly. “I saw them earlier.”

Dad grunted. “On the motorcycle. I thought so.”

“Yeah, the motorcycle,” Jax repeated bitterly. “Riley loves that thing almost as much as—” He faltered as if trying to remember how he'd planned to end that sentence. What did Riley love more than his motorcycle?

Sloane picked up the ice bag, put it in his hand, and guided his hand back to his chin.

“Loves that motorcycle more than anything,” Jax finished.

“Do you have a way to contact them?” Dad asked.

“Yeah.”

Dorian cringed as Jax blabbed the twins' meeting place, helpfully providing descriptions of them and ratting them out
for stealing his uncle's keys and wallet. “Sorry about that,” Jax added with a sheepish grin. “Like I said, I didn't know any better back then.”

Dad gave him a false, forced smile. “It's all right, Jax. At least you know where your loyalties lie now.”

Jax's face fell. “Still with her. I don't like it, but I'm bound to her. I can't—”

“What about
him
?” Sloane asked. “Pendragon or Pendare or whatever he calls himself.”

“Him? I have no bond with him.” Jax bared his teeth. “I hate him. Always have. Tell me what you want me to do.”

Dad hauled Dorian into the elevator by the back of his shirt. “I don't know what's gotten into you,” he growled. “But I'll deal with you in the morning.”

“You mean give me my lesson on loyalty?” Dorian surprised himself with the tone of his voice, but he was shaken. Aunt Ursula's parting words to them had been:
Dorian needs a lesson on loyalty
. The
or else
had been implied. “Are you going to let Aunt Ursula change me into a different person too?” Dorian was sure the only reason he'd escaped tonight was because Jax had drawn all the fire, making Dorian look innocent so he would be spared.

“Don't be ridiculous. Jax isn't a different person.”

“Isn't he? She made him hate his friends.”

Dad stabbed the elevator button for the fifth floor. “His
friends
are, in fact, a rival clan lord and a very dangerous, high-ranking Kin lady.”

“You mean a
girl
. Like the girl you have locked up in the basement.” Dorian had never talked back to his father like this before.
I sound like Jax
. For a wild moment, Dorian wondered if his aunt had changed him after all and he didn't remember it. But she would never have made him more like Jax!

“I won't even ask how you know that,” his father snapped. “But the
girl
you're talking about almost killed me and several of your clansmen during her capture. She and three Kin kids traveling in a luxury Hummer—none of them older than fifteen—nearly defeated us. And that was the week before Kin with an American aircraft attacked Oeth-Anoeth in Wales and released the Llyrs and Arawens. I don't think that's a coincidence.”

“But it's convenient for Aunt Ursula's plan, right? It gives her an excuse to eliminate the eighth day and all the Kin while cornering the market on magic with our tunnels.”

Dad had given up showing any surprise over what Dorian knew. “Perhaps you've forgotten why the Llyrs and the Arawens were imprisoned in the first place,” Dad said as the elevator stopped on their floor. He opened the cage door. “I thought you were smarter than that. Those Kin will be bent on warfare, and outside Oeth-Anoeth they're free to exercise their full powers. Life as we know it on this planet could be over if they aren't stopped.
That's
why the girl is locked up in our basement.
That's
why the other one needs to be in our custody too.”

Llyr was a power of darkness in Welsh mythology—a god of the wind and the sea. For those who knew better, the Llyrs were a family of Kin with magic controlling the weather, formidable enough to be remembered as gods and ambitious enough to want to
be
gods. And the Arawens—they had power over death itself.

Dad steered him into their apartment. Dorian didn't fight. He let himself be directed through the living room and down the hallway. Dad yanked the bedroom door open and pushed him in. The door slammed closed, and a key turned in the lock.

Billy sat up in the bottom bunk, just a dim shape in the dark. “What happened?” he demanded. “Where's Jax?”

Dorian stared at him, his brain mired in the question of whether ending the life of two girls and destroying the eighth day was better than seeing the world enslaved by Kin lords. “Jax is gone,” he said.

THE PATH THROUGH CENTRAL PARK
was deserted at midmorning on Grunsday, even though there were more Transitioners in New York than Jax could ever have guessed. He suspected there was a lot of stuff about the eighth day Riley had never told him—or lied about.

His head hurt, and not just from slamming his chin on a concrete floor. After his adventure in the basement last night, Aunt Ursula let Jax get a couple hours' sleep in the penthouse before sending him on this mission. But he still felt dog tired. He hadn't slept much the past two nights—the past
three
nights, actually, although at the moment he couldn't recall what he'd been doing on all of them. But tonight he could sleep like a stone.

In his new home.

With his family.

There'd be no more cramped little house for Jax, with nothing to eat in the broken-down refrigerator and Riley
forgetting to pay the gas bill . . .

Oh wait, Riley didn't live in that house anymore. He'd forgotten that. But it didn't matter. Jax was going to live with Uncle Finn and Aunt Marian from now on.

The Grunsday sunlight filtered through the trees, casting a mottled pink pattern on the path. He passed under a bridge and spotted the statue of the Alaskan sled dog perched on a large rock. He slowed his pace, looking left and right—and then up. Those awful Donovans had to be around here somewhere, maybe waiting to jump on him from the bridge.

At the sound of a shoe scraping on pavement, he froze, and then somebody appeared from behind the Balto statue.

Not a Donovan. Riley.

Jax grinned. He couldn't help it.
Jackpot
.

Riley grinned back. “Jax, you idiot. Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I'm fine.” His own smile wavered. Was he supposed to be glad to see Riley?

“I should smack you upside the head.” Riley reached for him, and Jax flinched, expecting the promised smack. Instead Riley tipped Jax's head back to look at his chin. “What happened?”

“Nothing. I fell. It was dumb.”

“Look at me,” Riley ordered. It was a command. Jax had to meet his eyes.

But he didn't have to be happy about it. “I don't have
time to gaze into your eyes, Riley. Knock it off.”

Riley laughed and let go of him. “You seem okay to me.”

Jax stepped backward, thinking quickly. “Look, I can pretend I got lost in the park for a minute, but any longer than that and they'll come searching for me.” He had a prepared script, but he'd expected to deliver it to the twins. He needed to alter it—and stall. The Ganners were watching, and if he'd met the Donovans, they would've kept their distance. But Aunt Ursula had planned for this possibility. If Riley or Evangeline showed up, the watchers were supposed to take action.

Of course, if the twins scented the Ganners approaching . . . “Where are the Donovans?”

“Tegan's making a survey of the area, and Thomas went to grab some hot dogs.” Riley ran a hand through his hair. “Jax, why didn't you wait for us? Evangeline was upset you came after Billy on your own. Did you think it was going to matter to us, who you were?”

“Where is Evangeline?” Jax asked, feigning concern. “Is she okay?”

“She's safe. Is Billy in the park with you? I'll get A.J., and we'll snatch him.”

“What about Evangeline's sister?”

“Leave that to me. I sent Arnie and Gloria to make nice with Sheila Morgan. No matter how mad she is at me, she won't like the Dulacs holding an Emrys heir. Once
I've got you and Billy out of here,
I'll
handle extracting Addie.”

“I already have a plan for getting her out,” Jax said. “If you just listen, I'll tell you.” He put distance between them, as if he were pacing. The Ganners had a talent for aim, but Jax didn't want to get in the way of a good shot.

“Okay, so tell me,” said Riley. “Evangeline doesn't want you doing anything risky.”

Dare he ask again? Was it too obvious? Jax turned away from Riley and put his hand on the honor blade sheathed at his side. “Where
is
Evangeline?” he asked.

“In the zoo with A.J.,” Riley replied promptly. “What's your plan?”

Jax raised his right hand to his forehead in a salute. He'd gotten what he needed.

Take him.

At the same moment, Riley caught on. His voice changed as he realized Jax had used his talent on him. “Jax?”

The buzzing sound was no louder than a mosquito. Riley slapped his neck, and his hand came away with a dart between his fingers. He looked at it, then at Jax.

“Riley, you suck.” Jax delivered the code phrase for
all is well
, which Riley had forgotten to get out of him. “
And
you're a sucker.”

“Jax,” Riley said hazily, making a grab for him. But Jax dodged, just as the second dart hit Riley in the chest where
his leather biker's jacket was unzipped. He went down on one knee. “Don't—”

Jax braced himself to fight off a command. But Riley's voice didn't carry even a hint of magic. Maybe he was too weak to call on his talent, but it was almost like he was pleading. “Not Evangeline,” he whispered, looking up at Jax. “Don't—”

“Jax! Hey—Riley?”

Jax spun around. Thomas stood ten yards down the path, a hot dog in one hand and his mouth full of what was probably another. He gaped at Riley, who keeled over into the grass. Then Thomas whirled and started running.

Jax took off after him. In a sprint between him and Thomas, he would normally have bet on Thomas. But maybe the hot dogs slowed him down, because Jax caught him under the bridge and leaped onto his back. They went down in a tangle of arms and legs. Thomas twisted beneath Jax and clouted him in the head with the fist that held the hot dog.

“Resting objects stay in motion,” Thomas hollered, kneeing Jax in the stomach, “unless unbalanced actors force them!”

That sounded familiar, although it made no sense, and Jax had no idea why Thomas was shouting it at him. But he hung on, even when Thomas dragged himself to his feet. “Objects at rest stay at rest,” Thomas tried again, “and other objects—oh heck!”

The dart hit him in the back of the neck, inches from Jax's head. Thomas yanked it out immediately, but it had already delivered its drug. He was only half the size of Riley, and it didn't take a second dart to put him facedown in the dirt.

Jax stood up and brushed bits of hot-dog bun out of his hair, then glared at Albert Ganner, who was running toward him. Two other men headed for Riley, lying motionless beside the statue.

“That was pretty close to my face,” Jax complained.

“We never miss,” Albert assured him. “Now, where are we headed?”

Jax opened his mouth to tell him . . . and stopped. “There's a problem.”

“I can't betray her,” Jax explained to Aunt Ursula. “I'm her vassal.”

His great-aunt was very patient. She sat at her desk in her office in front of a large picture window overlooking Central Park and the pinkish eighth-day sky beyond. “You're not betraying your liege, Jax. She needs to be in protective custody.”

“Yeah, but if
she
would view it as a betrayal, I can't do it. I tried!”

Jax
had
tried. But he'd been unable to tell the Ganners where she was. The words literally wouldn't leave his
mouth. He couldn't write the name of the place. He couldn't lead them there or walk there on his own and let them follow. The compulsion of his oath wouldn't allow it.

He'd repeated everything else Riley said, including how the Crandalls were appealing to the Morgan clan. Aunt Ursula waved away that information. “I'm not afraid of Sheila Morgan.”

Sloane sighed. “Maybe Uncle Finn and I should pay a visit to Pendragon.”

“Not for a while,” said Ganner. “We had to double-dose him because I thought he was going to hurt Jax. He'll be out cold for hours.”

Jax sat up in alarm. “How can Uncle Finn question him? If you let him talk, he'll command you.”

“Don't worry,” said Sloane. “We have our methods.” She reached out to pat him, but Jax moved his arm out of reach. Sloane was always touching him, and it bugged him. Plus Jax could've sworn her touch made his head hurt worse.

It had to be his imagination. And lack of sleep.

“What about the other boy?” Aunt Ursula asked.

The Ganners had complained they were running out of space for prisoners in the basement, so Thomas, who posed little threat, had been locked into a bathroom in the Dulac penthouse. “He'll wake up sooner than Pendragon,” Ganner promised.

“He's dumber than a box of rocks, though,” Jax warned them.

“All he needs to know is her location,” Aunt Ursula said.

“Which will change, if she suspects we've captured her allies,” Sloane said. “Grandmother, we're going to have to rely on Jax to bring her to us.”

Jax rubbed his aching head with his hand. “I'm telling you, I can't go to her!”

“Not if you bring Albert with you.” Sloane reached into the suede jacket she was wearing and removed her honor blade. “But if I swear that the Ganners will stay here, you can rejoin your liege and convince her to come to us willingly.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

Aunt Ursula smiled. “Tell her we have Pendragon, and we'll kill him if she doesn't cooperate. Does she care for him at all?”

Jax searched his memory, which was strangely murky. Something about a kiss on a pyramid . . . “Yeah, I think she does,” he said. “But I don't know if I can lie to her, and besides, one of the Crandalls is a truth teller.” A trickle of alarm ran down his spine. “It
is
a lie, right?” He didn't care about Riley. Riley was a jerk. But Jax was opposed to murder, even for jerks.

“Of course, it's a lie,” Sloane said reassuringly. “So tell
her we have him, and let her imagine what we might do to him. That's better anyway.”

There were no animals in the Central Park Zoo on Grunsday.

Jax almost felt sorry for Evangeline, hiding in a zoo without any animals, because he knew how much she longed to see one. He remembered wanting to bring her a cat—before such ordinary concerns got left behind in an effort to save the world.

Back when he liked her.

It was eerie, passing the empty sea-lion exhibit. The leftover smell of animals still hung about the place.
The animals are gone, but their smell is still here. Weird.

“Jax?”

He felt her presence and turned toward her even before she came running out of the bushes and palm trees behind the sea-lion pool. The bond of vassalhood felt like a noose around his neck as she threw her arms around him. Halfheartedly, he gave her a quick hug back, but his eyes were on A.J., who also stepped out of the shrubbery. Jax had always thought A.J. was a big useless lump, but he looked a lot more menacing with a rifle slung over his shoulder.

“Are you all right?” Evangeline unwound her arms
from him. “Did they hurt you?”

“Why would they?” Jax said, stepping backward. “They're my family.”

“Where's Riley?” A.J. demanded.

His mouth too dry to answer, Jax pointed behind him—toward the Dulac building, which was in the same direction as the Balto statue. Let that serve as an answer, till he figured out how to break the news without A.J. shooting him.

“I was so worried about you.” Evangeline's startlingly blue eyes searched his face.

“I don't know why you were worried. They're
family
,” he repeated.

“They kidnapped your friend,” A.J. said.

“They didn't kidnap him. He's their guest.”

Evangeline frowned. “But they're
Dulacs
, Jax.”

“My grandmother is a Dulac,” Jax said. “So that makes me one too. Maybe we're not as bad as you think.”

A.J. muttered something about
murderers
under his breath, but Evangeline spoke over him. “My sister. Is she there? As a guest? Willingly?”

Yes
, he wanted to say. His lips wouldn't form the word. As he feared, he couldn't lie to her. “I haven't met her yet, but you can see her today. All you have to do is come back with me.”

“What?” exclaimed A.J.

Evangeline nodded, and for a moment Jax felt a thrill
of relief, that it was going to be that easy. But then she said, “Why would I do that?” and Jax understood the nod wasn't agreement. It was confirmation of something in her mind.

“So you can be with your sister,” Jax said.

“What's the other reason?”

She knew. Jax didn't know how, but she did. His eyes slid uneasily toward A.J. before he answered. “Because they have Riley, and my aunt says if you want to see him again, you have to turn yourself over to her.”

A.J. swore loudly, and Evangeline pressed her fingers to her lips. “Jax,” she whispered. “What have they done to you?”