Val was in the middle of a rather Peter-like blood rage. She tore a vampire’s head off with her bare hands as I watched in horror, and then trampled over the one I had taken down, shattering her skull, to get to me. She had killed them all herself. No wonder the market had kept her as a guard.
Val’s eyes and shoulders died down as we passed through the door, but I kept glancing at her in concern.
“I’m done,” she said quietly, and I nodded.
But we weren’t done. We stepped into a very different corridor than expected. I had taken us on a wrong turn.
Chapter Twenty
Flames surrounded us, and I edged closer to Val, suddenly terrified.
“We belong,” she said, surprise clear on her face at my reaction. “They won’t hurt us today.” She strode forward confidently, and the flames all died away as if they had never been there at all.
“I don’t like it here,” I said, shivering. “It feels… funny.”
She glanced at me askance. “You’ll be fine. But watch out. This path isn’t as secure as the other. You did it too quickly.”
“Why did the first door close on us like that?”
“I’ve no idea. Maybe enough passed through. Maybe your panic did something. I don’t think I’ve met one like you before, so I can’t say for sure.”
The newest doorway behind us had closed too, but I thought that might have been because I had prayed so fervently for it to happen. Maybe I had some sort of control over the doorways I opened, after all.
“I found them because I was linked to them,” I said after a few minutes. “How will I ever find the slave market?”
“I’ll find it. It’s a part of me. I was born there, and all paths lead home here. I can find it. We could go there now if we had more with us.”
“You’re kind of well able to take care of yourself.”
“You’re not entirely helpless yourself.”
“Is this girl bonding?”
She stared at me. “You’re so strange, Ava.”
“So I’ve been told. Why did you help Leah? You busted her out of the cells, right?”
“With a little help. She needed me. When you spend time with her, you’re just compelled to protect her. The things she can do scare me. The idea of them being in the wrong hands terrifies me.”
“What is it that’s so important to protect?”
She stopped walking and stared me down. “If you ever tell a soul about Leah, how to find her, what she can do, anything at all… I’ll tear you apart with my own two hands. Do you understand me? Nothing will stop me, I vow to that.”
I swallowed, but my throat was so dry that it felt like swallowing lumps of sand. “I get it. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Leah.”
“Even to save the ones you love?” she asked, her gaze never leaving mine.
“Val, I don’t give up on people. I can’t. So if it came to that, well, I’d figure out a way around it.”
“No matter,” she said abruptly, walking ahead. “I won’t let anyone take her again. She’s special in that she can see everyone. I don’t know who her parents were, but I’ve known plenty of those children who come through the markets. The power in them varies, but Leah… I’ve never seen anything like her. When Helena told me about her and convinced me that we needed to get her out of there, I sort of saw it as a way for me to escape, but then she got older, and I realised she was even more important than Helena had suspected.”
“Why?”
“She’s extremely valuable to anyone who owns her. She can find anyone with special blood, can tell on sight what they can do, if anything. She can make the entire game much simpler for anyone who traffics these children. She can see their value when they’re born, so they don’t have to waste their time waiting to find out what their gifts are.”
“That’s troubling,” I admitted.
“She can walk into a town and tell me if there’s power there. I’m not altogether sure she’s even come into her own strengths yet. But the point is, nobody can own her, not even the Council.” She took a couple of steps before muttering, “Especially not the Council.”
“But how did Helena know what she could do?”
“Oh, she didn’t,” Val said. “She saw the mark, though. She had seen it before, a tattoo on Leah’s back that marked her as belonging to someone. All of us are branded.”
She swung her plait over her shoulder and pulled down the back of her top a little. I saw a sideways S on a circle, just like Emmett’s.
“Leah’s mark is different, and Helena didn’t have time to explain, but it meant Leah was strong. Maybe from another slave market, maybe not, but either way, it marks her as valuable. She can’t remember her old life, before she was sent to the market. She picked her own name. But she never worries and is never scared. She knows it will all work out in the end.”
“A friend of mine got his son back from the market recently. The boy has the same mark as you on his back, but he won’t talk about his past.”
“They’ve given him something that makes him silent, most likely. Nothing noticeable, probably a tiny mark on his body, but it’s there. And he’ll always be reluctant to talk about it.”
“Any idea who’s in charge?”
She shook her head.
I grabbed her arm, stopping her. “Did you hear that?”
A whoosh over our heads made us duck. A bird made of fire dove toward us, wings flapping noiselessly. Quick as a flash, Val struck it with her weapon, and the bird disappeared.
“Someone’s watching,” she said. “That was a warning. We need to hurry.”
“Besides that, we don’t want Esther leaving before I can tell her everything.”
“Those other two, the twins, they’re really Helena’s children?”
“I think so. I hope they made it back in time to see her.” And I needed to ask her questions about Leah’s mark.
We sped up, and I wondered if she was as reluctant as I was to see Esther leave before I could explain.
There were footsteps behind us, heavy steps that made my heart race. I couldn’t concentrate long enough to check it out, so I resorted to counting loudly, ignoring Val’s astonished looks.
“I can hear someone,” I said once I had calmed enough to reach out with my other senses. “But I can’t see them.”
“We should run.”
She took off before I could respond, and the footsteps sped up, too. Scared out of my mind of what could be out there, I raced after her, but a roar stopped me in my tracks.
I turned slowly to see a creature behind me. Its head reached the ceiling, and its shoulders were almost the width of the passageway. It was vile and ugly, with a ridiculous overbite that dripped with what was, with my luck, venom, and its clawed hands were bigger than my head. Its shoulders had bunched up, almost the way a dog hunches its back, and it came at me faster than it looked. I ducked out of the way of one of the hammer fists, and it smashed the wall with one strike. Horrified, I rolled under its legs, jumping up to stab it in the back, but my blade might as well have been a toothpick.
I had to duck another blow, then Val came back, swinging her hammer. The creature roared again, whirling its body around and bashing into the wall in an attempt to get her. I climbed up onto its back and stabbed my dagger into its eye socket.
It howled, thrashing wildly, but I didn’t have to stab the other eye because Val gutted him with a broad sword she had been carrying on her back. With a grunt, she released the blade, and the creature tumbled to the floor, with me still on its back. I jumped out of the way as it shrank into a human-sized being.
“That,” Val said, wiping her blade on its clothing, “was an old-blooded hell hound. Now let’s run before they send another.”
By the time we heard another set of footsteps, we were at the end of the corridor. I had the door up, and we were through it before I could catch a glimpse of whatever was coming for us. I held my breath until the new doorway vanished behind me. The howl of a
hell hound faded away, but not as quickly as I would have liked. How many beings could open doors?
Val shook my hand with her large, somewhat bloody one, a triumphant smile on her face.
She hollered a greeting, and figures came from the shadows to meet us. Folsom scurried over, his face still pale with worry. “We thought you were gone.”
“Ava?” Lorcan strode over and pulled me into an embrace. “You’re okay.” It felt great to hear his Liverpudlian accent once again.
“’Course I am,” I scoffed, but I was still shaking.
Lucia gripped my fingers, but she didn’t send any images my way, and for that, I was grateful. It took me a few minutes to take in the sadness on Lorcan’s and Lucia’s expressions.
“What happened?”
“We saw our mother,” Lorcan said. “But she passed on shortly afterward. You’ve been gone all night.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It was a peaceful passing,” he said. “But thank you for making sure we met once more before she let go of this world.”
I glanced around, missing a face. “Where’s Esther?”
“Gone,” Cam announced as he swaggered over to us. “She’s gone straight to the Council to tell them we’re here.”
“Bullshit,” I said.
“She had to tell them what she saw in England,” Lorcan insisted.
“What would you know, mongrel?” Cam said nastily.
The black girl stepped between them. “That’s enough, Cam.”
Lorcan stared at her sort of adoringly.
“I should go find Esther then,” I said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Well, I think I’ll shower first.”
Lucia wrinkled her nose at my words.
“You two, please stay here, okay? You’ll be safe. Don’t listen to angel boy over there. Esther would never let anyone hurt you.”
“Oh, I agree with you,” Lorcan said. “She came to get us out of there, but she was hurt, and they soon surrounded us. It’s madness over there. We have so much to tell you.”
“I’m sure I’ll hear all about it. I know I can trust her. I can feel it. I’m kind of like an empath,” I explained, hoping they would understand.
“You’re no empath,” Cam said, following me to the exit. “You’re a catalyst. And that’s what makes you so dangerous. Some day, someone could use you to end the world. You could never choose to create that much damage. You echo. You project. You exaggerate what’s already there. But you are no empath, girl.”
“Why would I believe you?”
“Leah!” he called. “Come here for a moment.”
Leah strolled over, eating an apple. She was thin and weedy, but there was a new maturity in her eyes.
“I’ve told our new friend here that she’s a catalyst. Am I lying?”
She looked me over before shaking her head. “No lie. You’re a medium for power really.” She frowned. “I wonder what we could do together.”
“Don’t give her ideas,” Cam said, laughing.
“I don’t even know what that means,” I said, frustrated.
“It means you can be used for a lot of fancy tricks, but alone, you’re pretty useless.”
“I wouldn’t say useless,” Leah said softly.
He waved a hand. “I would. Someone’s been filling her head with pretty little lies.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me.” I thought about it. “But what does it mean?”
“It means people can use you to get what they want. It means you’re dangerous to have around. It means you’re worth a lot of money.” He grinned. “But still, you’re useless.”
“How can I tell what they’re feeling then? How do I sense it?”
“Hormones, pheromones, sweat. You’ve a good sense of smell, so you use it. There’s nothing magical about that.”
“What about the healing? After I drink blood, I can heal minor wounds,” I said eagerly.
He made a face. “The blood heals you first, sorts out those repairing cells. You project the process in a bigger way. Simple explanation.”
I thought about Lucia, how she sent me her images. More projection. And Eddie. Had I protected myself from his soul-fuelled attacks by stealing a little of it for myself? The idea made my cheeks burn with shame. Maybe Cam was right.
“So that’s why nobody really wants me alive, but they all pitch a fit at the idea of me working for the other side?”
Cam nodded. “Creatures like you can be an unfair advantage; put it that way.”
“Am I ever going to reach the point where someone doesn’t tell me I’m wrong about everything I think I know?” I asked.
“Welcome,” he said, laughing softly. “You’re doing all of these things, but it’s not happening in the way you think it is, that’s all. It’s not life-changing.”
“You have your own strengths,” Leah said, but Cam ignored her.
“What about the other stuff? Finding people and stuff? I do things on my own all of the time.”
“You’re a hunter,” he said after a minute. “Or at least, a mixture of hunter and warrior. You can sense things better than most, but there has to be something calling to you in order for you to do it. The astral projection and opening gates, amongst other things, are truly gifts, or rather curses, of your blood, but you use them in a different way than a true nephal or vampire would.” He hesitated. “You should be more careful who you trust. After all, anyone can use you to project their own gifts. Anyone can give you their power temporarily without you even knowing it. That could be dangerous.”
That would be interesting, if I could figure out how to work it to my advantage somehow. “That might actually come in handy. Thanks.”
He shrugged. “You might as well understand what you can do. It makes me wonder why you don’t know the truth about everything. It makes me think that there are people in your life who would use you without your knowledge.”
“I don’t doubt that,” I said bitterly, and he nodded as if understanding. Things that Mrs. Yaga had told me now made more sense. She said I was like her, that people would use me to get what they needed. Was she a catalyst, too? What did that really mean, anyway?
“I should go,” I said, feeling awkward that Cam had suddenly become a huge source of information. I only believed him because Leah had backed up his claims. My automatic trust in Leah had me wondering, too.
Cam regarded me for a couple of seconds. “Stay safe. They’ll need you.”
He walked away, and Leah touched my arm. “Don’t let anyone take you, Ava. You’re much more dangerous than me in the wrong hands.”
Outside, it was dark again, and I was disoriented when I tried to figure out how long exactly I had been in Hell. That sounded weird, even for me.
A car was waiting outside Folsom’s home. Yvonne rolled down the window. “Get in,” she said, rolling it back up before I could respond. So why was she still working for Daimhín? We had Emmett back already.
I got into the car and found myself surrounded. “I don’t have time for work right now.”
“You stink of death,” Daimhín said. “Perhaps you aren’t as dull as I have suspected.”
I glared at her. “Hilarious. Not to question the boss or anything, but why are you even here?”
She smoothed imaginary wrinkles on her trousers with her palms, her way of keeping herself calm, I had learned. “There’s an urgent meeting going on as we speak. Our attendance is a necessity. Eloise said we needed you, that you’d be here, of all places. Have you been making friends with our creditors?”
“I was about to go shower,” I muttered. “What’s the meeting about?”
“Everything. The shifter has returned somehow. She called the meeting. Her brother backed her up, then Koda and Gabe. You know how it goes. We need to be there; it affects us.”
The driver drove faster than usual, and we made it to the meeting place pretty quickly. When we stepped into the room, I was surprised to see just how many beings were attending. Esther
was up front, looking as done up as always. When she saw me, she gave a little shriek, interrupting her brother’s speech, and limped toward me.
“We need to talk, and quick,” I whispered.
“We’ll be back,” Esther called out, leading me outside the room.
“Half of them are going to be listening anyway,” she said with a careless sigh.
“Esther. Do you understand what happened before? How little you need to say?”
She gripped my hands and nodded vehemently. “What are you on about? I’m going to say exactly what happened over there.”
Her wink reassured me, but I figured we needed to be on the same page. I hoped I wouldn’t be asked any questions I couldn’t answer, or worse, that I wouldn’t inadvertently give an answer that directly contradicted Esther’s.
She led me back inside, ignoring her older brother’s glare. Aiden sent hate vibes my way, but all I could see was Coyle, the demon Guardian who never failed to chill me to the bone. Strangely, he was avoiding my gaze, and I realised that I hadn’t felt any sign of shadows near me since I threatened him. Whether that meant I should worry or relax remained to be seen.
“I’d like to hear what happened directly from Esther,” Fionnuala said, perched on a stool at the front of the room. Her long blond hair flowed out in a non-existent breeze, and I remembered she was a weather-warden, a fae whose magic mostly stemmed from nature. She was strong enough to be involved in the market, in all sorts of things, but would she smear her snow-white reputation? She had created a similar sort of shroud around the trial area as the twins’ father had on the Féinics. I wished I could risk asking her about that.
Koda knelt next to Fionnuala, his translucent appearance making me blink. He looked so ill that I couldn’t believe he had anything to do with the market. But it was so easy to be wrong in that world.
Gabe and Erossi sat on comfortable chairs behind Koda and Fionnuala. Both had hard expressions, an arrogance that said they were better than everyone else. I didn’t trust Gabe, yet I kept turning to him. He had known my mother, was of a similar kind to her, and he gave the appearance of doing the right thing, but who knew what he was capable of? He hadn’t even told me the truth about myself. Cam, an angel I barely knew, had. But maybe Cam had his own reasons for that, too.