Though I hadn’t lived at the bunkhouse long enough for it to feel like home, I did have fond memories of the week I spent there. More traumatic ones were sprinkled throughout, but that was life. This was the safest place to stash Death and her coterie, and I was happy to strengthen our bonds by showing hospitality. Even if it was odd offering them a home and support that felt more like the coterie’s to give than mine.
Proving I had excellent parenting skills, I settled the pod containing Phoebe on our bed then propped a tablet on top after pulling up Netflix and tapping on a cartoon about a sponge wearing pants—I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.
Answering my phone, and risking my day going farther downhill, held no appeal. But I couldn’t afford to yank myself out of the information loop, not when the coterie was scattered. “Boudreau.”
“Hi,” a vaguely familiar voice breathed. “It’s Jay.”
“Oh, hey.” I forced myself to stand still and listen. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to thank you.” He kept his voice low, a bare whisper. “Your friend hooked me up.” Sheets rustled in the background, making me wonder if he had ducked under them. “He downloaded a portion of the video from the river onto my phone. He told me if anyone starts looking at me too hard to remind them the clip goes live if I die. He said tell them it will cause more trouble than I ever will.”
That sounded like Santiago. He enjoyed the classics, and the threat of an info leak upon Lambert’s death was textbook. Now I just had to hope the threat held. None of us could afford the video to go live when it would do a dead boy no good. “I’m glad he could help.”
“I wasn’t sure about him at first.” He laughed softly. “He was so cold. Ice, man.”
“He’s a good guy. His people skills just suck.”
“Good thing he’s got you for a partner then.”
The world’s axis tilted a bit, and I stumbled to one side before catching my balance. “Santiago?”
“Who?” Faint static crackled on the line. “No—Special Agent Wu.”
The surrealness of the moment was my only excuse for blurting, “Adam Wu helped you evade the feds?”
“Yeah.” His next laugh came out sharp, like he might have done wrong by telling me. “You didn’t know?”
“I have to go,” I said when no other answer formed. “Keep a low profile. Call if you need us.”
“Yeah.” He sounded uncertain rather than jubilant. “I’ll do that.”
After ending the call, I dialed Santiago to save myself a trip up to his room. The curses drifting down as he packed his life into boxes weren’t all that welcoming. “I thought you were working on the Lambert situation.”
“I am,” he bit out in response. “I ought to have him squared away tomorrow. That soon enough?”
“No need.” I turned the situation over in my head. “Wu fixed the situation.”
A snarl ripped from his throat. “If you think for one minute that he’s better than—”
“It’s worse than that.” I rubbed my forehead. “He did it behind my back.”
Asking how he did it when Santiago had scrubbed the video was a waste of breath.
“Either he’s a double agent,” he said flatly, “or he hasn’t given up on getting in your pants.”
The joke deserved a laugh, but I was in short supply. Wu was a double agent.
He worked for the NSB, and he worked against his father. He was already risking his neck for the charun his father wanted exterminated. Picturing Wu extending his neck a bit further on the chopping block to protect humanity from the charun too? The crazy thing was—I could see it.
I had no idea what it meant, but then again maybe I did. The enclave was a mixed community. Knox told me that much. Maybe Wu wasn’t as stuck in the human are cattle mindset as he let me believe. The real mystery was why he would keep it from me. I would applaud him, and he knew that.
A sick feeling curled through my gut that forced me to acknowledge he hadn’t likely sought credit for his good deed because Lambert might still be taken out. He must not want my thanks to taste like ash later.
“Luce.”
Ending my chat with Santiago, I met my partner on the deck near the patio set. “What’s up?”
“I just spoke with Kapoor.” A phone dangled from his fingertips. “The Hole is . . . gone.”
“What do you mean gone? It was a massive military instillation staffed with hundreds of people. Those don’t just vanish.” A shiver of unease swept through me when Wu didn’t answer. “Are we talking explosives?” Collapsing a network of tunnels and manmade caves was about the only way I could see them containing charun if a breakout was imminent. “Or . . . ?”
“He killed them all,” Wu said slowly, tasting the shock I heard so clearly. “The guards weren’t told to evacuate. There was no warning. Father collapsed the entire prison on top of them. Rescue teams have been dispatched, but they’ll find bodies if there’s anything left at all.”
“Why would he . . . ?” My heart smacked against my ribs in a hard thud. “Famine.”
All those people crushed to end a single life. All that blood spilled to send us a message.
Uncle Harold, what was left of him, was truly gone. He could never be laid to rest with Aunt Nancy now.
Famine had cost him and his family so much already, and the tally kept rising.
“She’s dead,” he rasped, his voice hollow. “There’s no way she survived the blast.”
“War knew.” I finally understood the look. There had been no remorse, only calculation. “When Famine’s coterie died, she realized Famine had too. That’s why War used her name as a call to arms.” I wet my lips and braced my heart for his answer. “Will my people die if I’m killed?”
“The coterie will survive you. They’re not born of your essence or dependent upon your oversight.” His voice rang hollow. “Famine’s coterie should have outlived her. Only Death, as far as I know, must remain near her offspring to sustain them. However, I can’t recall a coterie entering without their mistress. Perhaps that made the difference. They might not have been able to acclimate without her.”
A creeping suspicion gripped me, but I didn’t want to voice it just yet.
“We’re all that’s left. There’s only the two of us.” Shock blasted through me as I grasped what that meant. “What if Death agrees to surrender? What if I do too? This can end here, now, today.”
“Father has declared war on the cadre.” Wu rested his hand against my cheek, his gaze roving over my face like he wanted to memorize every detail. “Hunting you, killing Famine. This time is different, and he senses it. He’s not going to take chances. Neither of you are safe. None of your people are safe.”
“This is the cycle you meant for me to break.” Insight sparked my nerves alight, like his prolonged touch had shocked awake some forgotten corner of my brain. “This is the war you wanted ended. It was never about me or my sisters. This is about your father.”
A surprised laugh caught in my throat that bordered on maniacal.
Played.
We had all been played.
There was no struggle to master this terrene. There was war with a fallen god. Earth was simply the chosen battlefield.
“That’s why you’ve allowed the cycle of ascension to continue for so long when you could have simply slaughtered cadre as they breached once you located the seal. You can beat us, but you can’t defeat him.”
“Earth needs a champion.” His hand fell, tightening into a fist on the way down to his side. “I wanted it to be you.”
“Sorry, Wu, but this is for your own good.” I drew back my arm and slapped the taste out of his mouth. “Did that do it, or do you need another one?”
A bright red handprint marred his pale cheek, and his eyes crackled with shocked fury. “That was sufficient.”
“Good.” I stood taller. “I have family here. Human and charun. This changes nothing for me. I’m fighting. I have no choice. I have to protect my people.” I stuck out my hand. “The only question is—Are you still in this?”
For a fraction of a second, he stared at my outstretched arm, and I watched calculations being tabulated behind his eyes. “Yes.” He blinked them away, and we shook on a new partnership. “I’m with you.”
“Then we need to rally all the allies we can beg, borrow, or steal.” I puffed out my cheeks and anchored my hands on my hips. “Can you do me a favor?”
“I can try,” he said with less bravado than usual.
“Find Ezra for me.”
Wu recoiled like I’d slapped him. Again. “What?”
“We have enough skeletons jumping out of closets as it is. It’s time for me to do some spring cleaning of my own.” I chewed the inside of my cheek. At this rate, I was going to gnaw right through. “Ezra is powerful. He might be an asset.” I shrugged. “Even if he’s not, I owe the coterie the truth.” What few scraps I had to offer. “War told me I was owned. I want to know if it’s him. I need answers before another surprise jumps up and bites me on the ass.”
The pipe dream of meeting up with their maybe-Otillian agent had evaporated around the time Janardan came into the picture. As invested as I was in Conquest’s past, her history, it was ancient history. What I needed now, more than to sate my curiosity, were answers relevant to me, to this moment in time, to my future. Ezra, whatever terrene he hailed from, whoever he was, had those.
“Are you sure?” He plucked at his lip, staring at the space between his feet. “This is what you want?”
“I’m compromised.” Tartness flavored my laughter. “On more than one front.” I scrubbed my face with my palms like it might help wake my brain. “Someone altered me between the time I arrived and when my coterie breached. I came out wrong. That’s what everyone keeps telling me. How did it happen? Why me and no one else? I’m different, and there’s got to be a reason for that. There’s another player in this game, one who has yet to reveal their agenda, and my money is on it being him.”
Thankfully, I could eliminate one person from the suspect pool. Wu’s fruit loop of a father couldn’t be the one holding my leash. He would have strangled me with it by now.
“All right.” Wu lowered his hand then tucked them both in his pockets. “I’ll give you what you want.”
“Thank you.” Searching the NSB database while his father had us in his sights would be next to impossible, but he could always ask Santiago to lend him an extra set of hands. “I appreciate you doing this for me.”
“You should go.” He started walking toward the parking lot. “Cole is waiting for you.”
As much as I hated to pile things on his plate, it needed saying. “We might need Deland Bruster too.”
Wu pinched the bridge of his nose, and one of his eyelids twitched. “You want Bruster to evaluate Ezra?”
The man saw into other people’s souls. What he glimpsed in Ezra’s might save us all.
“I know it will cost.” Probably more than I could afford to give. “Tell him to give me a ballpark.”
His arm dropped like dead weight, his fingers limp as noodles. “As you wish.”
Wu took one of the White Horse SUVs. I’m not sure where he got the keys, but it’s not like the coterie hid them. Letting him drive one felt like painting a bull’s eye on his back, but he’d made the call. He knew what he was doing. That was more than I could say for the rest of us. Maybe while he was out driving around he would rescue my laptop. Then again, it had been left alone with his father and his goons. Better write it off as a loss. Maybe Santiago could hook me up with one of his billion tablets in the meantime.
An otherworldly quiet had descended on the bunkhouse while Wu and I had our chat, and I was glad for it. It would make what came next that much easier. And more dangerous. For me.
Santiago had gone ahead in a rental van packed with his gear. Portia had followed in another rental stuffed with clothes and supplies for the rest of us. Miller drove a third padded with blankets to cradle the pod on his way to rendezvous with us at the clinic. That left me to play chauffeur for Death.
Finding her was simple. She was the only Iniid to have embraced a human appearance.
“You ready to go?” I studied the body she crafted and wondered if she had gotten impatient to see Janardan and copied an actress from whatever movie had popped up on the tablet Santiago left her for research purposes. Her face was familiar, too familiar, down to the mole riding high on her upper right cheek. “We’ll talk about impersonating famous actresses later.”
A slight crinkle to her brow was the only indication Death was confused by the reference.
The fact her coterie didn’t blink at her accompanying me without a guard didn’t surprise me given she could kill with a touch. Nothing like impending doom to make conversation awkward.
After we got strapped in the SUV, I got down to business. Better to die in the backwoods where the vehicle would slide off the shoulder of a dirt road if she took offense than to wait until we hit traffic. I wasn’t going to risk innocents getting hurt if I could help it. I had to handle this with delicacy.
I cut my eyes toward her. “You killed Famine’s coterie.”
Smooth as a baby’s behind, Boudreau. No wonder Rixton had preferred interviewing our subjects solo.
“I did,” she said, voice solemn.
At least she hadn’t tried to lie. This was already going better than expected. “Why?”
“I gave Famine my word I would bring them to this world, and I did. She didn’t ask what would become of them once we arrived. That was her mistake.”
A shiver swept down my arms. “You killed them for the hell of it?”
“No.” A smile twitched on her lips. “I killed them because they conspired against me.”
“They weren’t happy Famine left them behind.”
“No, they were not.” Her gaze turned distant. “I lost three children to their petty jealousy, but a vow with Death is binding. I had to bring the remainder through as promised, or there would have been consequences.” She didn’t elaborate on those. “Beyond that, I was under no further obligation to them, and I exacted my vengeance.”
Call me crazy, but Death seemed big on vengeance.
There was only time for one last question before we arrived. “Is my coterie in danger from you?”
She reflected on her answer. “Not at present.”
Chuckling at her frankness, I asked, “Will you give me a heads-up when that changes?”
“You’ll know.” Her smile flashed rows of serrated teeth. “I won’t leave you wondering.”
“Oh good.” I tightened my hands on the wheel. “That’s . . . comforting.”
The white moving van waited for us in the lot, and I nodded to Miller on my way past.
The hole-in-the-wall clinic was exactly as I remembered it—or didn’t remember it—from the night of the accident when I took the first dose of my new reality. Dr. Norwood hadn’t changed either. He was still a middle-aged man with thinning hair, except perspective filled in the blanks about his charun ancestry. Hindsight told me the rest. This was a practice meant to help charun stay off the NSB’s radar. I just hadn’t realized it at the time.
“Ah, Ms. Boudreau.” His frazzled smile was explained by the mountainous shadow in the room behind him. “Such a pleasure to see you again. I trust you’ve been feeling well?”
“I’ve got no complaints.” I indicated the woman at my side. “This is Death. She’s here to see her mate.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said, paling. “Janardan will make a full recovery. While I’m not overly familiar with Iniid biology, I suspect he will regenerate the leg given time.”
The slightest hitch in Death’s breath exposed how much the news meant to her. “Thank you.”
While Dr. Norwood led her into the room where he had treated me months ago, I waited on Cole to extricate himself. He did so, closing the door behind him before joining me in the dusty waiting room.
Though he rested his hand on my cheek, he slid his gaze past my shoulder. “Where is Phoebe?”
I tried to ignore the pinch in my chest, but I mostly failed. Phoebe was a complication. I wasn’t sure how she would fit with us, with me, and that left me jittery. Cole adored her, that much was obvious, so I would have to embrace and adapt. Two things I excelled at these days.
“The pod is locked in the van with Miller standing guard. I wasn’t sure if she was cognizant of her surroundings, but I left a tablet with her playing cartoons just in case.”
“Thank you.” The warmth in his gaze tangled my heartstrings. “Your kindness can’t be easy.”
Phoebe was proof of his relationship with Conquest, and that hurt. But she was just a kid. I couldn’t hold that against her. Even if it hurt. “However this shakes out, none of it is her fault.”
“We got lucky tonight.” He slid his palm down my neck and across my shoulder before walking into me. “Things could have gone so much worse.” His lips brushed my temple. “How are you coping?”
“With matehood, dragonhood, or motherhood?” I snorted then sobered. “It’s a lot to absorb, but I’ll manage. I have you to help me.”
“Always.”
The tight expression he wore gave me a twinge, and I dug deep. Really deep. Way deep.
“I know better than anyone that blood is the least of what makes a family.” I squeezed his hand. “I’m going to try. That’s the best I can promise you.” His expression relaxed a fraction, and I was glad I had made the effort. “When will she wake?”
“The effects will wear off within a few days after separating her from Death’s influence.”
“Why did they keep her in stasis? Surely lugging the pod around raised questions.”
“The others would have noticed her if she’d been allowed to mingle with the coteries. They had to isolate her to protect her. They told the others the pod was critical to Death’s rebirth cycle for the coterie to avoid questions.”
“Sleeping Beauty,” I murmured. “They let her sleep away the time like a fairy tale princess.”
“Yes.” He sounded conflicted. “I’m grateful for the chance to raise her, at least in part, but we won’t know what we’re dealing with until she wakes.”
Worrying my bottom lip between my teeth, I had to ask, “Can you deal if a maternal bond doesn’t spark?”
“Your relationship with Phoebe is yours to define. I will support whatever feels most natural to you.” His arms formed a warm cage around me, like I might escape if he let go. He really ought to know better by now. “I’m sorry I kept this from you.”
“I understand why you did. You had no way of knowing if you could trust me. I even get why you didn’t tell the coterie. You did the exact thing my dad would have done, so I can’t hold it against you.” I relaxed into his strength. “With that in mind, I have a confession to make, and I hope you’ll show me the same consideration.”
With a tight nod, Cole guided me outside where we took a short walk that allowed him to keep an eye on the van while giving us privacy. Aware how precious time was to us now, I kept my confession brief while explaining when Ezra entered my life and my suspicions about the bond War had identified.
“This Ezra called you every year on your birthday?” Cole scratched his jaw. “That’s the only contact you had with him? You never met him? You only ever heard his voice?”
“Yes.” I cut him a sideways look. “Does that matter?”
“Bonds work in myriad ways.” He hesitated. “Their effectiveness relies on proximity or a talisman.” He lifted his wrist, and the rosy metal band there glinted. “Conquest implanted us with a part of herself. She’s the only person who can break the bond, and she can exert her will through it.”
Hardly breaking news, but I regretted the reminder of the control I wielded over them.
“Less powerful charun have built coteries using their ability to mesmerize, but that requires daily contact. Voice works, but touch is best. Psychic connections fade without regular feedback, and so would any bond requiring blood or sacrifice to reaffirm it.”
A purest flame of white-hot fury ignited in me. “You’re saying Ezra gave me an implant to control me.”
“Assuming Ezra is responsible, yes. That seems most likely.” Cole slowed his pace. “The calls might have been maintenance, checking to ensure you were still susceptible to him.”
“You mean the episodes might not have been a thing he saved me from, but conditioning. Inflict enough pain that my eyes crossed, that I was so desperate I would take any help to make it stop, then dial me up and heal me with a magic phone call.” I thought about it. “It would reassure him I was still under his thumb while stockpiling my goodwill and preserving his anonymity.”
“I wish we had known,” he said, and I understood he saw it as a failure that someone had gotten to me first, that they had kept a bead on me all that time while my coterie was unawares.
“I kept it to myself at first. Any one of you might have been Ezra, and I wasn’t sure what he might want if he revealed himself. I thought it was smarter to wait him out, let him come to me. But he didn’t.” I scuffed the soles of my shoes. “Later, I wanted to tell you, all of you, but I kept thinking I would gain access to the NSB’s database soon. I could pin him down, figure him out, and then present the problem and the solution.”
“That’s not how this works.” His fingers tightened around mine. “You’re not a liability, Luce.”
“You haven’t seen me around my birthday.” I laughed hoarsely. “I come apart at the seams, Cole. It ain’t pretty.” I shut my eyes for a heartbeat. “I wanted to believe that being with the coterie might be enough, like all I needed to get my head on straight again was contact with my own kind, but I can’t be sure. None of us can be sure what Ezra was doing for me—to me—all those years.”
We reached the farthest point where we could keep the van in sight then paused together.
“All this time we were planning for the wrong war.” Cole’s breath tickled my cheek. “I hope Wu finds us answers.” A giddy flutter accompanied the word us, a thrill that we were in this together by his choice. “We need the whole truth about his father. We have to know what we’re up against, and we must be certain of his loyalties.”
I quelled the knee-jerk response to defend my partner. “You think he might turn on us?”
“He could have pitched saving the world to you ten different ways, and you would have jumped on any of them. It’s who you are, it’s what you do. But he chose to go with the version we would most easily accept, the one we anticipated. He didn’t warn you about his father until he was cornered. He didn’t do a lot of things that would have proven his allegiance to a shared cause.” Cole shook his head. “I believe he wants this to end. I’m just concerned what acceptable losses look like to him after all this time.”
“Collateral damage,” I agreed, understanding what he meant. “That’s us, all right.”
“His Utopia will be built upon the bones of all the cadres who came before this one.” He released me. “We have to be careful, or he’ll add ours to the pile.”
As much as I wanted to defend Wu, say he wouldn’t use us like that, I didn’t know him well enough to swear that was true. He had opened himself up, shared his home and family with me, but he hadn’t done it out of the goodness of his heart. He saw an opportunity, and he took it.
“We have to get Dad away from the taskforce clinic.” Until I spoke the words, I didn’t realize I how long I had been holding them in. I could have raised the issue with Wu at any time, but I had kept my mouth shut. Relocating Dad meant facing him, and it was easier being a coward, but it was time to woman-up. “The issue is where do we put him? The enclave is a solid option. I’m not hypocritical enough to say it’s good enough for Thom but not Dad.”
Cole read me with ease. “But you aren’t sure if you can trust Wu to protect them.”
The usefulness of the information Wu had entrusted to me hinged on finding a receptive listener willing to bargain. From what I could tell, his dad wasn’t the chatty type. And I doubted he would deal with me. That meant Wu’s secrets, while damning under other circumstances, might not be worth the oxygen he used to share them. There was no leverage there, and I wouldn’t use innocents in that way. I couldn’t if I wanted to stay in the saddle on my high horse. Falling off meant I was just as underhanded as Conquest.
“Thom is their guest, for now,” I admitted, “but Knox already views him as an insurance policy.”
Cole picked up on my meaning. “You’re worried Knox might sacrifice them to spare his family.”
“I’m more worried Wu might let him.” All his careful plans were crumbling, and I didn’t want my people getting smooshed in the process. “Where do we go from here?”
“We let Santiago live his prepper dreams. He purchased safe-houses and cached supplies for the coterie all over the country.” A shrug rolled through his massive shoulders. “We fall off the grid for a while, get our affairs in order.”
The fine print, as I read it, was get my affairs in order. Set up long-term care for Dad and arrange protection for the Rixtons, things I might not be around much longer to guarantee.
“We’ll gather intel and rally our allies,” Cole continued, “and then we’ll make our move.”
“I wish things were different,” I whispered more to myself than to him. “I wish we could just live.”
“I’ve had different,” he murmured back. “I’ll take this life—take you—over that any day.”
And when his lips brushed mine, sealing the vow, I believed him.