“I feel like I haven’t stopped since I touched the Culling quartz,” I admit low enough for only him to hear.
He steps into my space. Pins me against the wall. His hand lifts, and then he drags his finger slowly along the side of my face, while his eyes roam over my lips. “We’re going to do this mission and return to finish what we started with Clara, okay?” he says confidently.
I nod, trusting in the depths of his sparkling green eyes. Although I know neither of us knows for sure how this will go, I’m no longer worried. I don’t feel alone in it.
The door to the elevator opens. We head out of the building and across a bridge to where the Military Compound is. I keep my thoughts focused on my steps. One foot in front of the other. Eventually, I won’t be standing in this city any longer. I’ll be back in the real world, trying to break one of the very things that protect the humans from the Underground.
This can’t be happening. This can’t be real.
My lungs fill up with air, and then release on a bark of laughter. Crazed, panicked laughter. I can’t stop myself once I start. I can’t get a breath in as everything collapses down around me. Katie, my parents… all of it. Truths, lies… all of it.
Weldon and Jaxen stop just outside of the Military Compound and exchange looks. I don’t think they know what to do with me, and I don’t blame them. I’m sure I look like I’ve cracked.
And I just keep on laughing.
“Are you okay?” Jaxen asks, reaching for me.
I can’t answer. I bend over, clutching my stomach as the laughter keeps coming. Keeps bubbling over. It’s like this awful, dark cloud that’s filled with every bit of realization I’ve been dodging lately, and it’s finally opened up and giving me hell. And somewhere in the midst of my laughing fit, it shifts into this awful sickness. This awful need to release the salt that harbors all of my fears within my body.
“She’s on meltdown mode, Jaxen,” Weldon says in a low tone.
“Faye, you have to snap out of it,” Jaxen says. There’s a mixture of concern and aggravation in his voice as he looks at the prying eyes around us, and it does nothing to clog the free-flowing faucet of my emotions. He cautiously reaches out for me, but I yank back.
I can barely see them through the blur stinging my eyes. “Everyone keeps telling me what I have to do. Everyone. The Darkyns. The Primevals. Weldon. You.” I suck in a deep breath and finish, “No one ever asks what I want. No one ever explains why I have to do this. Because the truth is, I don’t want to! I don’t want to break the seals! I don’t want to go against our Divine! I don’t want this power, and I surely don’t want to be the face behind a rebellion against the proclamation!”
My mind is swirling, twirling, spinning against my will. I’m taking unsteady steps backwards, away from the Military Compound. Away from familiar faces. Away from the choices I don’t want to make.
“She’s going to run,” Weldon says, sounding partly amused, partly bored.
“I’m not deaf!” I shout at him, pounding my fists against my legs. “I can hear you, damn it!”
“Good!” he shouts back at me, finally reaching his limit. “Because you’re making an ass of yourself right now! None of us asked for this, but we’re all here because you’re here, and if you’re not here, then why are we here?”
I stop in my tracks. Wipe my nose with the back of my hand. “What the hell did you just say?”
“I don’t know, damn it!” he yells, his voice breaking at the height of his anger, of his disappointment in me. He sucks in a long, really deep breath. Turns to the building, curses under his breath, and then turns back to me. “We’re all feeling this right now. We all have something to lose. Look, all I know is that you need to pull yourself together. Don’t break like some silly schoolgirl. You’re stronger than that. Better than that!” He shoves a hand through his hair. “Now, I’m going into that building to suit up. I’m going to finish what we started. You can either man up and follow, or go be a coward and… and sit there in your cowardice… as a coward… being cowardly or whatever.”
He stalks off, leaving me standing with my jaw on the floor and my foot in my mouth.
“It’s okay, Faye,” Jaxen says after a long moment of silence. After Weldon’s steps have long left us.
“No, it’s not,” I say firmly, searching for the pieces of my courage that have been lost along the way. I don’t lean on Jaxen when he offers to hug me, because Weldon’s right.
I do need to man up.
I do need to stop acting like a scared, wounded schoolgirl, and the only way that can happen is if I make that change.
Because this isn’t about me anymore. This is about the Darkyns and putting a stop to them. This is about all the innocent bystanders who get hit with their attacks and threats day in and day out. I have to put a stop to this. I have to end the Darkyn Coven.
We enter the Military Compound and are immediately swept up by a colonel and taken to the weapons room. The Elite’s uniform is shoved into my arms, and them I’m guided away from Jaxen and left to stand alone in the locker room. I stand there for a moment, looking down at the uniform. It’s much like the Night Watchmen uniform. All black. All leather. But this uniform has magic woven into the fabric. Magic that supposedly stops outside magic from entering.
After putting the uniform on, I stop in front of a mirror and pull my hair back into a high ponytail. It’s been far too long since I’ve actually taken in my appearance, and I’m almost startled by the person reflected in the mirror. She doesn’t look how I remembered myself to look.
Her muscles reflect the hours spent in the gym. Her eyes are deeper, harder. There are dark circles under her eyes that offset the light pink of her lips. She looks almost like how a warrior would look.
“Middleton?”
I spin around at the voice. A woman with short, cropped, strawberry-blonde hair has her head poked through the door. “The general is asking for you. It’s time.”
“Thank you,” I say as I walk away from the mirror and out of the locker room.
I follow the woman down a path of halls until we pass a wall that’s made with half-glass. On the other side, there are a bunch of men in tailored suits with the Coven crest on their backs, all huddled over a large, oblong table. I spot Jaxen and Gavin standing in the mix, both watching intently as the other men in the room point and shout out various opinions.
“This is it,” the woman escorting me says. She pushes the door open to the room labeled: War Intelligence.
Every head jerks in my direction. Every eye preys over me, sizing me up. I know I could shrivel up… hide inside myself, but then I lock eyes with Weldon and I force my chin in the air. I clench my fists at my sides and enter the room, stopping next to General Sterling.
“Everyone, this is the Everlasting, Faye Middleton.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I say, glad my voice sounded steadier than my heart. They all nod simultaneously at me before turning back to the maps spread out across the table and continuing back into the heated debate.
“Go and wait over there with your partner, Middleton,” General Sterling says kindly. He offers what I think could be a small smirk, and then turns back to another general, who addresses him.
“General Sterling, do you not agree that we should follow through with the Double-Wave Operation?” I squint to read the name tag on the jacket pocket of his suit. General Tillman.
“I do not agree,” Sterling replies diplomatically. “Any wave we send in, they will return. You’re forgetting that they are expecting us now. There is no element of surprise. The only way we can combat expectation is by being prepared and giving them what they expect.”
“What?” General Tillman asks. The room is dead quiet now. “You want to hand them the Everlasting?”
“At this stage in the game, it’s only going to get worse. They start with the threats. We don’t deliver. They follow through with the threats. We still don’t deliver. So they amp up their strategie
s and begin attacking the heart of our operation. They attack in ways they know will draw her out. In the end, she will go one way or another. In the end, she will be faced against the Darkyns.”
“They can’t get a hold of her, Sterling. All hell would break lose.”
“It’s already going to. One way or another,” I say. In one statement, I have the attention of every highly ranked man in the room. And it doesn’t scare me as much as I thought it would. My words don’t trip like they once did. “You’re all forgetting I can bring down a room full of men in a single blink. I know I can. I can do this mission and return. I can do the undoable.”
“But what then, Middleton? They won’t stop harassing our people until they get what they want. Countless will die,” General Tillman says. “We must think of all sides. We must prepare for the worst.”
“Then we draw them out into battle,” General Sterling says. “We take them out first.”
“They won’t come out to battle. You know that,” Tillman says, dismissing the idea. “How long have they waited in the shadows?”
“They aren’t in the shadows anymore,” Weldon says from behind me. “They’ve made their appearance. They’re gearing up for the fight of the century.”
“I can draw them out. If I’m in the middle of that battle, they will come. It’s their only chance to capture me,” I say boldly. I don’t completely know what I’m signing myself up for, but it feels right. “Taking them out little by little will be the only way to prevent further harassment until we can reach the Exanimator.”
Tillman looks up at me. “You know of it?” He looks to his commanding officers around the room. “How many know of this machine? This is highly classified information! Someone has leaked.”
“No one has leaked anything, Tillman,” General Sterling says. He presses his eyes shut in angst. “Everyone knows of the legend. It isn’t rocket science.”
“It’s the most dangerous machine known to our kind, Sterling,” Tillman says, his face twisted in revulsion. “Do not mock it.”
I hate that I notice Weldon tensing up. I hate that I see him being forced against his will into it, strapped in by leather and gagged. His eyes lift just enough to meet mine, and then he looks away.
General Sterling flattens his palms against the table and levels his gaze on Tillman. He’s the type who likes to intimidate with his eyes alone. He wants to pull you in, suck your resolution deep inside his black irises, and then spit you out not remembering what ground you stood on in the first place.
“Enough of this repetitive debate. It’s getting us nowhere. Let’s have a vote. All in favor of striking them hard and taking them out, using the Everlasting as bait, raise your hand.”
Slowly, hands begin to rise around the table.
If General Tillman could breathe fire, I think he would. I can almost see the steam wisping from his ears. His lip twitches at the corner as his eyes harden into a steely gaze that not even Sterling could waver. It’s then that I see why he is the lead general over war. I imagine him on the battlefield, killing with his bare hands.
“And I am your commanding officer,” General Tillman says firmly. “I have final say. We will attack with the Double-Wave, and when their numbers are lowered, the Everlasting will be sent in to destroy the Holy Seal. When that is accomplished, she is to return here so we can prepare for the Unholy Seal.”
He turns to me, and I swallow hard. “Head to the weapons room to be prepped and briefed for the mission. We leave at 2300 hours.”
THE WEAPONS ROOM IS NOTHING like the room back in the Academy.
It’s an artillery fit for a king. There’s too many of every weapon imaginable to keep count. My fingers itch to graze over the cold metal. To feel the rush of holding something that has the power to take out any who threaten me with a single blow.
The room itself takes up an entire floor in the Military Compound. It’s manned by five Elite’s, all women, who glide up and down the aisles with computerized clipboards in hand. They use machines to lift objects and move them into laid-out duffel bags waiting to be delivered to each Elite in need.
“Your necessary bags are being put together as we speak,” the woman with strawberry-blonde hair says. I’ve learned her name is Serena, and she’s a Witch without a partner. More and more, I’m noticing that Elites who don’t have partners are given jobs such as these. It makes me wonder what happened. How she lost hers.
“Anything good in the bags?” Weldon asks, peering over one of the women filling them.
“There are five fluxes per bag, three automated handguns, five grenades, stakes, salt, potions, daggers… everything you could possibly need, and it’s all in a spelled bag that adheres to the material of your suit and grants easy access in the midst of battle.”
“Wow, that’s all?” he asks sarcastically. “Can you throw in a weapon of mass destruction while you’re at it? Blowing down the entire joint may serve a better purpose. Save us all the fuss.”
“Please welcome General Sterling,” a young man introduces from the doorway behind us. We all turn around.
“At ease. I’m here to brief you,” Sterling says as he heads toward us in a hurry. It’s obvious that he’s flustered by his showdown with Tillman. “This mission has to go exactly to plan. As always, no humans are to be harmed. We will have Witches on standby, veiling the church to ensure that humans don’t detect our presence… so long as we get in and get out quickly and quietly.”
“So then we’ll be in a populated area?” Jaxen asks as one of the Witches wraps a gun holster around his midsection. For a moment, I want to slap her hand away, but then another comes up behind me and does the same.
“Yes. The Holy Seal is kept underneath the high altar in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Right smack dab in the middle of population.”
“Where in the church?” Jaxen asks. He lifts his arms out so the woman can slide another holster around his arms.
Sterling reaches into the pocket of his jacket, pulling out a folded-up piece of paper. “This is the layout of the church.” He sets it down on one of the tables and waits for us to circle around. “See here.” He’s pointing to what looks like a stairwell off to the right of the high altar near the Lady Chapel. “This is the entrance. There’s a network of tunnels under there. We believe the seal is kept in the crypt.”
“The crypt?” I ask, already feeling dirty. Just the thought of walking amongst dead, decaying bodies sends a shiver down my spine.
“Yes. As I’m sure you already know, the Watchmen have been granted many hallowed grounds by the government as a means of offering sanctuary to our kind. A safe place where we can lay low should something in the paranormal world happen.”
“Because none other than our kind and humans can cross,” I state. My mind reverts to the day my life changed forever. The day Bael almost had the upper hand. We retreated to an underground safe house beneath a church and licked our wounds while the Priesthood formulated the next plan.
I won’t make the same mistake again.
“Exactly,” the general says.
“So then, why the whole get up? If they can’t cross, then we shouldn’t have anything to worry about,” I state.
“Darkyns can cross. Though they use dark magic, they are our kind. That’s why you had to leave the church before and come here. This is the only safe place in the world from evil. And in this crypt, the Divine built the first and only Holy Seal that connects to the Unholy Seal, thus working an everlasting spell that keeps a veil between this plane and the Underground. It was the only way to keep more paranormal from surfacing.”
“And now you want us to destroy that magic,” Weldon says, leaning back against a table. “How smart. What happens after the Exanimator? When all the paranormal have a free ride into human town? It’s bad enough that Mourdyn left a small hole after his deal with Bael, now you want to bring the whole damn thing down.”
The general clears his throat, the sound harsh, awkward, as if he’s having trouble
forming a retort to Weldon’s point. “I’m sure the Priesthood has the answer for that clear problem in the works. We are not told every last detail.”
Weldon stares at him for a moment, as if the general just grew another head. As if he’s just confessed to us that he discovered we can breathe water. He looks over at Jaxen, and then down at me, and in his gaze, I know that we’re headed for a world of trouble. I know that what the general just admitted is far worse than knowing every dirty secret Clara has kept from me.
Because what he just admitted is that there is no plan. No arrangement made for when the shit hits the fan and every human on this planet is placed in jeopardy by the hands of greed.
By the hands of war.
“Well, then do you mind if I leave now? Because I think I’m catching a bad case of screw this,” Weldon says. There’s no hint of joking in his tone, and it only unsettles me further. “I’m not going to sit here and let you put me and my friends in jeopardy. You’re asking us to put our lives on the line for a mission that isn’t even thought all the way through.”
“I agree,” Gavin says, stepping forward with his eyes set and intent on getting answers. “We’re not making another move until we know just what the hell is going on here. You’re asking us to bring down the world as we know it, and all we have to go off is that the answer lies in destroying the Exanimator. But what then? And why?”
The general’s eyes land on me, and I just want to crawl out of my skin and find someone else to hide inside of. Someone normal. Someone free from this responsibility. “Because,” he says slowly, sadly, “the Everlasting has surfaced. There’s no other choice but to move ahead with these plans of war. The Divine Cecilia foretold this day, this age, and this is all we can do to stay afloat. One way or another, the Darkyns will rise stronger than ever. They are already starting to. They are already taking out large numbers of our Coven. They want her. The only way we can prevent this from happening is by taking their source of power, the Exanimator, and we can’t do that unless the Veil is dropped.