“You mean former High Priestess,” Weldon corrects.
Nefarum ignores his remark. “Only then will the change be complete,” he finishes, looking to each of us with an accomplished smile.
Weldon snorts to himself. “That’s it? That’s the big change?”
Nefarum’s head snaps in Weldon’s direction. “That’s it? Do you know how long it took to get the imaging correct? How long until this program saw its first perfected correction? And how many we have corrected since then?”
Weldon lets out a small, confused laugh. “I’m sorry… I just don’t see how images can change someone’s ingrained characteristics,” he says, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. “I think this is a bunch of bullshit.”
Nefarum’s sharp, black eyes meets Weldon’s. “That’s why I’m the doctor, and you’re the muscle. It isn’t your job to think.” He stops in front of the computers and pulls a small USB drive out of his pocket, slides it into the machine, and then types in a password before pressing play.
A sunny day.
Evelyn Carter’s face.
The word civilized.
The word obedient.
A sunny day.
Evelyn Carter’s face.
The word savior.
The word obedient.
And then it repeats again and again and again as Jezi’s hands are pressed against Katie’s temple, bracing her.
I pray Jezi’s able to do what we secretly agreed upon before bringing Katie here—to protect Katie’s mind. But what if she can’t? What if the serum was stronger than her magic? I should stop her. This is wrong. Weldon and Jaxen watch the screen in horror. Both probably debating the same things I am. We got our answer… Sure, they change. They change by manipulation. They change by hypnosis. I need to call this off.
But I also need to see what’s on that tape.
“Stick with the mission,” Jaxen says without looking my way.
My fists clench at my sides. They could punch through steel. That’s how much anger is inside me. I feel like a wound-up snake, coiled in on itself, ready to strike.
The images cease, and then Jezi does what she was told. Stepping back from the table, Nefarum presses a button that opens a notch in the ceiling. A TV slides out, hanging directly above Katie.
“Now, if you’ll please excuse us… this last part must be done in solitude,” he says, urging us to the door.
“No,” I say firmly. “We’re here to learn everything. You’re supposed to be training us. We can’t learn it all if we don’t know what’s on that tape.”
Nefarum lets out a small, nervous laugh. “I don’t even know what’s on the tape,” he says, brushing me off, but I don’t believe him.
My hand catches the doorframe before he can shove me out. “I’m not leaving.”
Nefarum’s eyes flare as Jezi’s hand latches onto my forearm. She doesn’t have to say anything out loud. It’s in her eyes. Let go.
So I do.
The door shuts behind us, and Jezi pulls me off to the side, not letting me go. I’m about to ask her why when I feel her brushing the edges of my mind. I let her in.
My sight goes dark, and then I see the TV suspended over Katie flick on. Evelyn’s face appears on the screen. She’s sitting in a white room with the words just shown popping in and out of frame behind her.
“Hello. My name is High Priestess Evelyn Carter. If you are watching this video, then that means you are in a state of susceptibility. Your mind has been opened to receiving any and every form of information this Coven can throw at you.”
She leans forward in her chair. Smiles ever so slightly. “I would never do that to you. Which is why you are here, listening to this video now. I’m here to protect you against the very Coven you live to protect. I know this is confusing. You were taught to value this system, but you were taught wrong. This Coven is a fraud. A means to trap you into a life you do not have to live.”
She reaches for something under her chair, and then sits back, holding the culling quartz in her hand. “This,” she says, looking at the pink crystal set between two ceramic hands, “this is what you’ve come to call the culling quartz. The stone that will determine your future and affinity partner.”
She looks up into the camera. “This stone is the perfect symbol of what our Coven is based on. Lies. Your affinity partner is chosen for you by your elders, and it is they who tie you to your partner’s powers. This is a ceremonial stone meant to twist you into thinking slavery is acceptable. That being bound to a person is the only way we can live amongst each other.
“I’m here to tell you this is a lie. And I’m here to offer you a different life. A life where your power and your choices are your own. But you must choose now and, if you choose freedom, then you must lie in wait until the time is right.”
Katie’s head nods, agreeing with everything she’s saying as Nefarum hovers close by.
“War is coming, and your chance to break free from this Coven… from your partner… is not as far away as you may think. Which is why, when you leave here, you will not remember this video. It’s imperative to keeping this plan safe. I want you to store this information deep in your memory where no one and nothing can access it but you. And that won’t happen until the signal is given which is—”
“Wait!” I yell out as the connection between Jezi and me breaks. “Why did you stop before—?”
Nefarum has Jezi by the arm with Jaxen and Weldon in defense mode, ready to strike.
“I see you four don’t listen very well. You were dismissed. Told not to take part in the video process and yet, here you are. Eavesdropping.”
I contemplate draining him dry right here and now, but stop myself. Katie’s still in there, under whatever kind of magic she’s been put under, and he’s our only way of getting her back.
So I put on my very best sweet, innocent face, and run my fingers lazily up his arm. “I’m so sorry, Dr. Nefarum. You know how it is to be young and curious.” I catch Weldon snickering out the corner of my eye as my fingers stop just at his shoulder. “My brain is just so eager to learn everything it can. Science is just so… so fascinating and—”
“Please,” Nefarum says, removing my fingers from his shoulder as if they held the black plague. “Spare me the concocted story.”
I cross my arms. “She was never correcting their behavior,” I say, trying to keep my tone even. “She’s setting them up for war.”
A moment of shock passes over his face, and then his shoulders straighten with resolve. “So you heard then?”
I stare at him, letting the hatred in my eyes be my answer.
“Such a shame,” he says, stepping back from me. “And here I thought I could trust Seamus.” He nods his head to someone behind us. My senses open. Two Elite hunters and witches. “This, I’m afraid, is the part where you are all detained and corrected. We can’t have you reporting back to Seamus, now can we?”
“Jaxen, Weldon… now!” I shout as I turn for the door, prepared to grab Katie in whatever state she’s in.
Spells fly through the halls as Nefarum heads back into the lab and shuts the door. I dodge a spell as Jaxen charges one of the hunters, his growl filling the hallway, and reach for the handle.
It’s locked.
“Go!” Jezi says as she chants spells left and right, some blocking magic, others incapacitating the other witches as I jam my shoulder against the door, trying to knock it down. With one deep inhale, I slam all of myself and my power into it, watching it fly across the room, ramming right into Nefarum.
Katie’s still strapped to the table in a trance. I make a move toward her, but then every alarm in the building goes off. The lights dim, and then the emergency lights begin to spin as the automated woman’s voice barrels through the speakers.
“All Elites, please report to the city square at once, armed and ready. Darkyns have infiltrated Ethryeal City. This is not a drill. I repeat—this is not a drill. All Elites, please—”
I turn
back to the others, who have bound the four Elites with volation, and we all look to each other.
Shit.
JAXEN’S ALREADY PULLED THE DOOR off Nefarum by the time I reach Katie.
Weldon rushes by us, over to the computer, using his tech skills to try to shut it down. “I can’t get the USB out. It has to be ejected, and I can’t do that without the password!”
Jaxen grabs Nefarum by his throat and holds him up against the wall with a hand full of volation, shouting at him for the password.
A chilling, bloodstained smile is all Nefarum gives. “More will be coming. I already tripped an alarm.”
“Maybe, but not until after they’re done dealing with whatever is going on down there,” Jaxen says, squeezing tighter.
I’m still shaking Katie, trying to get her to wake up.
“Move over,” Jezi says, rushing over to me with a syringe filled with a cream-colored liquid. She injects it in the same spot where the serum was injected, and then stares at Katie’s face, waiting for her to wake.
I make quick work of unhinging her arms and legs, and then sit her up, smacking her cheek. “You have to wake up now, Kat!” I say as the lights flash on and off, the alarm continuously running.
“We don’t have time,” Weldon says, still trying to break the password. With a large growl, he tells Jaxen to drop Nefarum, and then picks him up by the throat and slams him on his back. “Jezi, quick!” he calls, pulling her by the arm down to him. “Get in his head and get the password.”
Jezi looks at Weldon funny, and then puts her hands on Nefarum’s head, holding him tight as he struggles beneath them, cursing and yelling for help. “Destroy,” she says a moment later.
Weldon punches Nefarum hard enough to put him out, and then types the password in. A second later, he pulls the flash drive from the computer. “Got it.”
“Elites are headed this way,” Jaxen says from the doorway. He picks up the door I knocked over, puts it back on its hinges, and then throws an unconscious Nefarum over his shoulder. “We’ll take him and let Seamus and Mack deal with the rest.”
Weldon moves to a shadow. “Let’s go.”
Katie’s eyes flitter open just enough, so I pull her arm over my shoulder and guide her to her feet, moving her with me. A moment later, we’re migrated to where Weldon’s been staying—the abandoned wing in the training facility.
My heart stops and starts as I set Katie down against one of the steel walls, trying to catch my breath as memories crash against the shore of my mind. He’s set up shop in the same room where I had been pushed to my near breaking point by Clara. Where I had nearly killed Jonathon.
I turn on him, pointing my finger against his chest. “Weldon, you can’t poss—”
He grabs my finger and squeezes reassuringly, his golden gaze softening. “It’s just a room, mouse.”
I don’t know why I haven’t strangled him yet.
Jaxen drops Nefarum into a chair, and then Jezi goes to work with binding spells that will hinder him from moving once he wakes.
“What the hell happened?” Katie asks, her hands running through her hair. She’s awake and aware now.
My stomach is in knots that I know will never be undone. For her, nothing good came out of what we discovered. Her partner, who she’s come to believe in, isn’t the man she thinks he’s changed into. He’s worse. He went from hating witches, to hating the affinity bond and agreeing to work for the Darkyns.
We can’t trust him. We can’t trust any of them.
I swallow, tucking away my emotions, and say words I know can never be taken back. Words I know are about to draw a line between my friendship with Katie.
I squat in front of her and take her hand. “Because of you, we got the information we needed about the correction process.”
“And?” she asks, searching my eyes.
“And…” I say, wishing I didn’t have to be the one to tell her. “And those who have been corrected can’t be trusted. Not until we know what the trigger is,” I say, stiffening my spine.
Everyone stares at me with such intensity, I feel myself wanting to fidget.
Katie’s shaking her head. “No. That can’t be right. He’s different. He’s trying.”
“Chett’s brainwashed, Kat. Even if he’s changed a little, he’ll flip a switch when and if the trigger is given.”
“She’s right,” Jaxen says from behind me. “It can’t be risked. Not until we can reverse the effect—”
“Which may or may not be possible,” Weldon adds, flipping the flash drive he took through his fingers. He clicks on a TV he snagged from one of the labs, and then steps back, hands folded across his chest.
I look at Nefarum’s limp body. “There are still loyal advocates to Clara in this city. He’s proof of that. If we want to succeed in taking them out, we have to set feelings aside and look at the bigger picture. A war with soldiers who could flip on us at any moment… that’s asinine.”
“And me?” Katie says, touching at the injection spot on her neck.
I can’t look at her. Can’t swallow the emotions swelling within me because I’m not sure if Jezi was able to protect her mind or not.
“You’re not corrected,” Jezi says, breaking the awkward silence.
I look at her, air whooshing out of my lungs.
“I was able to protect her mind. Though she was injected, I never put her in the state Nefarum asked me to put her in. I shielded her mind from the message. She’s safe.”
Katie’s wearing a mixture of relief and grief on her face as she makes her way to the TV showing the commotion happening downstairs. Though she may still be one of us, her partner no longer is, and she knows it. That feeling we all felt deep in our gut about Chett was just proved right. He can’t be trusted.
And that means she will be powerless until a solution is found.
Jaxen moves to the monitor by the door that allows us to contact anyone within the city. He presses the screen and tells the robotic woman to connect him to Seamus’ office.
No one answers.
“Why won’t he pick up?” he says, trying a different line as the alarm pulses through the air.
“I have an idea why,” Katie says, staring at the TV.
We all make our way over, and then gasp.
I ALMOST DON’T BELIEVE MY eyes.
Almost.
There, standing in the middle of the city square with arms held up in surrender, is a Darkyn in a hooded, black cloak and beaked mask. Everyone who had been brave enough to remain outside watches in horror as the unfamiliar enemy stands silent, encircled by over a hundred Elites with guns and magic aimed at the stranger’s head.
“How did they get by the barrier?” Jezi whispers as we all stare at the TV reporting the live Watchman News story.
“My guess is that the seals are down so everything we know about magic has now gone to shit,” Weldon leans in and answers. “Welcome to the new age.”
Jaxen moves closer to me. “Tillman has the Darkyn surrounded by probably every Elite left here in the city. There’s no way that person is going anywhere.”
I watch the screen as Tillman stops in front of the Darkyn and holds his hands out, volation filling his palms. Without saying a word, he shoots his hands out, volation flying through the air.
But it doesn’t ensnare the Darkyn as he’d been expecting.
The volation ripples around an invisible shield the Darkyn has strung up. A short burst of cackling female laughter fills the air. “Is that all you’ve got?”
With a flick of his hand, Tillman has given the order to attack. The sky lights up like a twisted Fourth of July. Every spell and volation trap meant to capture has been thrown at the witch, but her spell holds strong, the barrier rippling around her as the magic is absorbed and dissipated.
Tillman’s hand flies up into the air, halting everyone. The crowd goes quiet.
“How many of you are here?” Tillman asks for all of us.
“Only me,” the w
itch says evenly.
“Who are you?”
Laughter trickles out from under the shadow of her hood. “I am darkness reborn. I am a vessel of mistakes.”
“And I’m bored,” Tillman says. “You’re on hallowed ground. Your spell might be strong now, but I can assure you that we will continue to hit you with a barrage of spells until you weaken and tell me who you are and why you’re here.”
“I have nothing to hide,” the witch says. “In fact,” she continues, taking a step forward, “I’ll tell you everything you need to know, including what plans the Darkyns have for our little Everlasting, so long as you take me to her.”
A hundred red dots dance like crimson snow on her forehead and chest. Everyone in the room looks to me, each wearing a form of every emotion I feel on their face. Anger. Fear. Betrayal. Confusion.
“How about this?” Tillman says, refusing to negotiate. “You tell me who you are and what those plans you say you know are, and we won’t kill you.”
I blink the seconds by right along with everyone else, wondering what the next move will be. Wondering if she was telling the truth when she said she was alone, or if this is a lie.
“I see you’re not going to make this easy, so how about this?” The Darkyn pulls the hood off her head, and then removes the mask.
Katie gasps, hands flying to her mouth.
I want to ask her what’s wrong, but at the same time, the Darkyn looks toward the camera and says, “This message is for the Everlasting. My name is Meredith Fellwood. I’m here on behalf of Claire Ravensmoore, twin sister to your former High Priestess Clara Ravensmoore. If you’re interested in learning Claire’s whereabouts, and how you can save not only her, but also all the rest of these Primeval insolent assholes, then look for me where the lion has entered a timeless sleep.”
I think I might be sick. My stomach protests against my light breakfast. Weldon’s instant pain at the mention of his affinity partner’s name punches me in the gut as if it were my own. I reach for his hand and squeeze, wishing there was a way I could share in the heavy burden.