Traitor (6 page)

“It’s okay,” I said. “He’s just leaving. Go back to bed.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, twisting her foot on the pavement. “The thing is, this could be a good time to go see the children if we bring
him
with us. Nobody would stop him, and—”

“Leah, I can’t risk you like that. The Council could take you in again.”

Her cheeks flushed red. “But I can help. I can figure out what they can do, what everyone is trying to use against you.”

I sighed, surprised that Leah was being so open around
Phoenix
when nobody else seemed to trust him.

He nudged my elbow. “I’m curious, too. I can take her with me. I will protect her.”

Leah grinned, probably realising I was half-afraid to say no to the fae in case he turned on us.

“If you tell Val I did this, I
will
kill you,” I warned her. “I’m going, too.”

“Great. I already left a note for Val, though,” Leah admitted. “She might go on a rampage if she realises I’m missing, so I’m not taking any chances.”

“Got it all worked out, eh?” I took a deep breath before facing
Phoenix
. “If you or any of the Council lay a hand on this girl, I will end you.”

His amusement at the threat didn’t help my fear. I had seen
Phoenix
fight. I had heard rumours of the scope of his mother’s power. I
really
didn’t want to go up against him, but I would if necessary.

“Come on,” he said. “My driver’s waiting.” Seeing my hesitation, he nodded. “He’s mine now. Don’t worry.”

I decided not to think about what that meant. He strode off, leaving Leah and me to trail behind him.

“That was a dangerous move,” I whispered to Leah. “You don’t know him.”

“I know enough,” she replied, jutting her chin stubbornly. “He feels like Lorcan.”

“Don’t let Lorcan’s goodness confuse you. We can’t trust anyone. That’s our default mode. Remember that, Leah.”

“
You
trust him.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Maybe I’m not the best judge of character.”

She patted my arm. “You’ve done okay so far.”

Not always.

The car was outside the cul-de-sac, and I recognised the driver as someone I had once threatened. His head bopped in time with obnoxiously loud music, and he sang along, never missing a word.

Leah exchanged a glance with me.
Phoenix
opened the front door on the passenger side, and the driver jumped about a foot in the air, his face paling. His fingers fumbled with the radio. I smiled at him, and he blessed himself. I popped open the back door, and Leah and I slid into the car.

Phoenix
snapped out directions.

The driver hesitated. “It’s just that… we’ve been warned, you know?” The man looked as though he was trying to figure out which order was the most life-threatening.

“Who am I?”
Phoenix
asked coolly.

“I’ll take you, but—”

“Silence.”

The driver clamped his mouth shut and drove us to the grounds where the children lived. The grounds were beautiful, but the building reminded me of an asylum. We had risked death to rescue those children from Hell, but they were trapped again, waiting to be used by yet another master. I had failed them in the worst way, and I owed it to them to figure out a way to get them back to their families. Besides, I felt a connection to them because Emmett would have been trapped amongst them if somebody from the slave market hadn’t decided to get rid of him first.

We got out of the car at the gates to find sleeping Guardians in the security hut instead of alert warriors.

“This is weird,” I whispered. “Leah, get back in the car.”

“No.” She shook her head. “We’ve come this far.”

“We’ll edge around the wall,”
Phoenix
said, gazing around. “If we just—”

I held up a hand to silence him and pointed to a small garden on the left. From previous visits, I knew a bench was there, surrounded by trees and plants and well hidden, particularly in the dark. Two sets of racing heartbeats had alerted me.

Leah nodded and strode toward the shrubbery. She felt something, just as I did, and she had apparently forgotten the meaning of the word caution.
Phoenix
hurried to lead the way, and I kept at the back to ensure nobody could get to Leah without going through either
Phoenix
or me. The place could have been under attack, but I didn’t sense any rage or bloodlust in the air.

We crept beyond the trees, where I heard giggles and whispering. On the bench sat a figure straddled by a teenage girl with her skirt around her hips. I covered Leah’s eyes without a second thought. She pulled away my hand with an embarrassed groan.

The boy froze and then laughed, the sound ringing loudly in the night air. The girl automatically adjusted her skirt. He gripped her tighter and leaned his chin on her shoulder, his dark hair falling into his eyes. She pressed her face against his neck, shaking with laughter.

“I remember you,” he said, looking at me.

As we approached them,
Phoenix
said, “I take it you two have something to do with the sleeping Guardians.” He sounded slightly impressed.

“You helped us,” I said. “You helped fight against the guards in the slave market.”

“And look where it got me,” the boy replied. “Prettier place, but a prison all the same.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m trying to change that. What did you do to the Guardians?”

He patted the girl on the back. “Some of us have skills.” He grinned. “What are you sneaking around for?”

“We just want to take a look around. If we go inside, will there be any Guardians awake?”

He shrugged. “Hard to tell. Her tricks can be kind of unstable. We left the side door open. Go in that way. If anyone’s around, it’s probably just kitchen staff.”

“How are they treating you here?”
Phoenix
asked.

“Same as anywhere else. Now, do you mind? We don’t get much time alone.” He gave us a lopsided smile that was pretty endearing, but the hardness remained in his eyes.

Again, I was forced to remind myself that the children had been raised in death and blood and fear. The boy in front of me had killed, been trained to kill. Emmett might have gone through the exact same thing.

We left them there, the girl’s giggles erupting as soon as we were out of sight.

“Maybe we should have separated them,” I said, feeling a little uncomfortable at the realisation that both teens were probably only a little older than Leah.

“We don’t have time for a scene,”
Phoenix
said. “You said he helped you before?”

I exhaled loudly. “When we finally got to the market in Hell, he was one of the guards. The ones who aren’t sold have to work there. He turned on the guards who attacked us then asked us not to hurt the children.” I thought of Emmett with a pang. “They grow up fast in the market. But I’m not so sure they know how to handle the things they’ve gone through.”

Leah trembled next to me.

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “If it wasn’t for Val, I’d be one of them. I’d be stuck here. Emmett, too. Even Dita if things had been different. Imagine if someone like you had ended up here. This is just another prison. You can’t let this keep happening, Ava. You have to stop it.”

I took her hand. “I’m doing my best, Lee. It’s just taking longer than I expected.”

“My mother won’t let that happen,”
Phoenix
said in a low voice. “You’d have to kill her first, and you would never get close enough to her to cause her harm. She would kill you before you could attack in any case. I don’t think you realise what she can do. If her sights are set on these children, forget them.”

“Then I’ll have to convince her she’s wrong,” I said firmly.

He scoffed, “You are nothing more than an ant to her. She’ll step on you and forget your name immediately.”

Leah stepped right up to
Phoenix
and put her hands on her hips, looking fierce for the first time since we had met. “Ants work
together
for the good of the colony. They do what’s best for everyone, and they survive. Your mother only cares about herself.”

He shook with fury. “You know
nothing
about my mother.”

I stepped between them. “Calm down. She’s a teenage girl. Take your anger out on me if you can’t control yourself but don’t even think about putting it on her.”

“We should hurry,” was his reply. “We don’t have much time.”

He turned abruptly and headed for the building. Leah and I had to jog to keep up with him.

He stayed silent until we grew close to the end of the driveway. “I should go in first. Scope out the situation.”

“Maybe we should stick together.” I gazed at the building. “Leah’s probably safer with you than me when it comes to Guardians.”

Leah looked paler than usual.

“You okay?” I asked her.

She nodded, looking determined, and took a step forward. “Let’s get on with this.”

We snuck around the building to the side door and into the kitchen. The area was strangely empty of life, but as soon as we stepped outside of the kitchen, Leah gasped and sagged against the wall.

“It’s too much,” she said. “There’s so much here. I can’t…” She shook her head.

Phoenix
lifted her into his arms, gentle despite his earlier anger. “We should leave.”

She struggled against him. “I’m fine. We’re here. We can’t turn back. If we just walk around for a bit, maybe I could get used to how it feels.”

Phoenix
nodded, but he didn’t put her down. He carried the girl as if she weighed nothing, and I followed, sending my other senses outward in an attempt to gain an early warning.

“It’s so overwhelming,” Leah said in a small voice. “It’s worse than I expected. Whoever has control of the people in these walls will win any battle at all, but it’s self-destructive. There might not be anything left afterward. It’s out of control.”

“What can you feel?” I whispered.

“Power that hasn’t been controlled. It’s all over the place, wreaking havoc. It feels like… chaos. There’s a natural witch in here, one who hasn’t been taught. Her power’s so raw that… we need to get out of here. It’s dangerous. If a fight breaks out, the fear and anger could provoke a disaster.”

Phoenix
didn’t hesitate. He led us back the way we came. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted him to see more, to hear more, but if Leah was scared, then I would listen.

Outside,
Phoenix
put Leah down, and she knelt on the grass, breathing deeply.

“They need to be trained,” she said. “They need to be taught control. They need to be separated. There’s too much going on in there. Poor Emmett if that’s what he lived with all those years.”

My blood ran cold at the memories of Emmett and his night terrors, of the things he had hinted he had to do to survive in Hell.

“Do the Council know exactly what they have on their hands?” Leah was rarely unruffled, but she looked horrified. “If people find out, they’ll want to kill them. It’s like you, Ava. They thought it would be better if you were dead than risk what you could possibly do, right? That’s going to happen here when they’ve stopped being useful, or when word gets out. Except they could probably protect themselves as a group. There would be a bloodbath. We have to do
something
.”

“We should get out of here,”
Phoenix
said, but approaching footsteps sent us all on red alert.

“Run,” I hissed. “Get her out of here. Leah can’t stay here,
Phoenix
. You saw her. This place would kill her. Move!”

He hesitated.

“You promised,” I said pleadingly, and he nodded.

I ran toward the footsteps, hoping to hold them off long enough for
Phoenix
to take Leah to safety. I jogged the length of the building and met three Guardians. The first, a dark-haired giant froze, staring at me in confusion, while the second cracked his tattooed knuckles, a sly smile on his face.

“What are you doing here?” the third asked in a commanding tone.

“Needed to check up on everyone. Make sure they’re still here and safe.”

He took a step toward me. “That’s our job.”

“Don’t really trust the tattoos.” I nodded at the second one’s hands. “And I’m pretty sure he isn’t on the same side as me.”

The dark-haired Guardian calmly took a step toward me, catching my attention while the second swung out some kind of metal chain and whacked me in the shoulder.

Yelping with pain, I yanked at the metal. It slipped out of my fingers, but my tug pulled the Guardian off balance. Swearing, he dropped the chain and unsheathed a knife.