Emblaze (7 page)

I nodded, my heart pounding at his touch, but his hand fell away as his power flared again, sending out more silken honey.

„Would you like me to walk you home?" he asked, not pushing.

I felt like I was about to burst into tears. It was hard enough to hear someone call you a whore, but to call you the whore of someone who was killing the people you cared about -

and in front of the one person you most dreaded could think of you like that …

„I"d prefer to go alone, it"s just up the road," I said, fighting to hold onto control until I could get away from him.

He nodded. „I should go and check that woman got away okay, anyway."

I started to leave when I remembered something. „Linc, you felt me today, didn"t you?"

He stopped, mid-turn. „When you hurt yourself? Yes."

„No, I don"t mean that. I mean you felt me respond to you, like we weren"t just aware of each other, more like we were communicating."

He thought about it for a moment. „Yes …" he said, uncomfortably.

As far as I had know, he hadn"t been able to do that before. Any of it.

„Since when?" I checked.

Another delay before he answered. More honey stirring. Why was he pulling on so much power?

„Today."

„
Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep
down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small
voice says to us, “Something is out of tune”."

Carl Jung

Exchange night.

It had been in the making for six weeks, since that first text from Phoenix after he"d discovered Jude had betrayed him and handed us the Exile Scripture.

It took nearly four weeks to simply agree on the „method" of exchange. A simple face-to-face had been quickly ruled out in week one - too easy for Phoenix to use his power over me and reinstate wounds he had once healed. He could bleed me out as soon as he got hold of the Scripture or, if I got in first, he knew I could harness my abilities, disabling him completely. And this was only one of the problems we faced in a potential minefield. Almost every scenario had a similar bad ending based on the mutual distrust each side had for the other.

The drive-by drop would never work with Phoenix"s speed advantages, and his suggestion of using normal humans was quickly binned. The fly-by drop - Spence"s idea, need I go further? Even the idea of the public place and intricate treasure hunt - as suggested by Steph - had flaws.

Of course, we didn"t
really
care. We had our own plans in place, but we couldn"t appear as though we didn"t think this exchange was important. We"d even gone as far as to stage a few heated conversations at Hades and outside Lincoln"s warehouse, arguing over my safety, given the role I would have to play. We knew Phoenix had exiles watching. I could sense them lurking.

In the end, we had agreed upon the exchange particulars, a combination of some of our earlier suggestions and Phoenix"s all mixed into one. Two tall buildings, far enough apart that our powers wouldn"t cover the distance, and a solitary high-tension cable connecting the two. The idea was fairly simple; with one person travelling from each side, neither force would be as quick to cut the line. In addition to Phoenix and I, we were each permitted to have two people on the roof and one on the ground, in case. We had Beth stationed below, though if it came to it, a fall from that height would be fatal so her services would be more about containing the scene than recovery.

I"m not usually scared of heights. But standing on the rooftop, looking over … Well, it was a
lot
higher up than my apartment building.

I shivered and wrapped my arms around my waist. I"d given my coat to Spence as a precaution hours ago and regretted not thinking ahead as another blast of high-altitude air sent cold right through to my bones. I tugged my beanie over my ears and crouched back down, out of sight.

It won"t be long now.

Lincoln was readying the heavy crossbow that had come in on special request from the Academy"s weapons department . He was all business tonight and he was a crack shot. I watched as he and Griffin carefully fed the cable into the bow"s anchor that, once released, would lock onto its target. Coils of wire cable lay carefully arranged at his feet so when he fired, they wouldn"t tangle or snag.

Lincoln checked and double-checked everything. Griffin, beside him, triple-checked.

When they seemed satisfied, Griffin said something to Lincoln that I couldn"t hear and made him laugh. A light, excited laugh by the expression on his face. One he never gave me. Not any more.

My airways tightened as I crouched I the shadows, the Exile Scripture tucked securely inside my backpack, which had remained strapped to me since the moment it had been transferred to me two hours ago. Every day since we had acquired it the Scripture had changed hands between Grigori - different partners responsible for keeping it safe for each twenty-four-hour period. Locking it away just hadn"t been safe enough.

Spence moved up behind the others and Lincoln slapped him on the shoulder, before covering up the guy-like gesture by giving him an awkward embrace. I could tell Spence was totally grossed out, but he played along. This was important.

Lincoln moved to the edge and aimed the crossbow that all of them had been drooling over since it arrived last week. He released the shot. It was good, clean. I followed the flash of silver to the Brighton building and smiled as it landed perfectly on point.

Right at Phoenix"s unflinching feet.

The Brighton building was mirror height to the Maddox, but there was a great distance separating the two - Steph had worked out that it was over a kilometre"s straight line.

Lincoln had outdone himself to make such a perfect night-shot first go. Then again, he was just that good.

I tried to keep my eyes on Phoenix, just visible thanks to the small amount of roof lightning, as he hooked himself up to the harness and rolled the Scripture into a canister which he then raised above his head. I tried to look for something that would alert us to any sign of sabotage, since we knew he"d be planning something, but my eyes wandered of their own, drifting back to the Maddox, back to Lincoln as he stood on the edge of the building. He was magnificent. Even from this distance, I could feel the pull towards him.

He of course, didn"t look in my direction once. He knew not to. None of them so much as glanced my way. Spence was strapping himself to the cable, taut at both ends, and I could see that Phoenix was ready to go.

It was almost time. Five minutes till eleven and on the hour both Phoenix and I were due to start the move towards the centre.

I worried for the millionth time that this plan wouldn"t work. Spence was good, he was really good. Standing on top of the Maddox, he looked exactly like me. Wearing not only my body, but my mannerisms and expressions, as practised, as well as my real clothes - back-up in case the glamour slipped at any time. Spence could conjure anything to complete his look, but having the support of real props only helped. He would have been able to fool anyone, even my father, but Phoenix was … Phoenix. He
knew
me, knew my emotions in ways no one else did. I was willing to bet they were very different from Spence"s.

Lincoln and Griffin fussed over Spence - glamoured as me - careful to ensure they reacted to and treated him in the same way they would me. Everything they did would be scrutinised from afar as Phoenix and his crew tried to see what our reserve plan could be.

I held my position, hidden by the night, guarding the Scripture that we had no intention of handing over. That was my job. The Scripture had been given to me as a last resort - my condition to agreeing to this whole set-up. There was no way I was going to sit back and let Spence dangle a hundred storeys up in the air, sharing the one high-wire with Phoenix, knowing that when Phoenix discovered it wasn"t me at all, anything would be possible and the only guarantee - it wouldn"t be good.

Griffin had agreed to let me be there. I was on top of the Atlantic, taller by five floors than the other buildings, giving me a slight advantage and better cover. I was equal distance from both Maddox and Brighton, forming the point to the triangle. Obviously, I had to be far enough that Phoenix wouldn"t sense me unless I wanted him to and I"d ensured I was at sufficient remove from Lincoln so he wouldn"t be distracted by me. Not that I was certain I distracted him like he did me, but just in case.

I checked my watch. One minute.

This is a bad idea. A very, very bad idea.

I"d half expected Steph to have called me. I"d told her if she did I"d let her stay on the line as it all went down. I wasn"t doing anything else.

Guess she"s caught up with the research thing again.

Phoenix was right on the edge, the Scripture was easily visible, as per rules, hanging from a strap around his neck. Spence-as-me was on the edge, too. Lincoln and Griffin had moved back into place, guarding the line and in position should something go wrong - as in, someone-cutting-the-line wrong.

11 p.m.

Phoenix dropped into open air, dangling from the high-wire in his harness, looking like he did this every day. It was a basic zip-line set-up, without the zip. Both he and Spence were harnessed, but needed to pull arm over arm to make the distance. Spence dropped with a little less finesse. They both started to monkey forwards.

Reaching halfway to the middle, they were moving at a similar speed.

My heart was pounding - I couldn"t shake the feeling that something was wrong, very wrong.

Phoenix moved athletically, but was it his usual fluidity? I looked closer, trying to figure out what had me so worried. But, shielding myself like I was, I couldn"t push out my senses.

It was useless. It made me nervous that Phoenix"s face was hidden by a hoddie. I wished I could speak with Lincoln or Griffin, double-check if anyone had actually seen it was him.

I turned my attention back to Spence. He was making good headway and I knew by now he"d be working hard on controlling his emotions, trying to neutralise them as much as possible in the way we"d practised. The fake Scripture dangled from a leather strap, slung diagonally across his body, and he reached down a few times to adjust it.

I glanced at my phone again, my breath leaving light wisps of smoke in the frosty air. It had only taken them fifteen minutes to reach the centre, which was impressive. I strained to see everything through the darkness. They each pulled their Scriptures from around their necks

Everything was going according plan.

So why is something at me that it"s time to panic?

Spence held out his Scripture. That was one of the other reasons why it had taken so long to agree on the exchange. We"d been stalling. It takes a long time to make a false ancient replica. In the end, we"d only had enough time to make the outside look convincing.

When Phoenix opened the Scripture he"d know, but that was the other reason why we"d agree to this particular exchange - he wasn"t likely to hand around in mid-air to check it. We hoped.

They made the swap, slowly, as agreed. I looked over to the Brighton. The exiles Phoenix had brought were two of his best. Diplomatically, one light and one dark. We"d been profiling his group for the last month, collecting information on them all so I knew the two on the roof. Gressil, once a Power of Dark, had a particular strength in turning men against women, luring them into impurity in exchange for luxurious indulgences. The other was Olivier, once an Archangel of Light. They"d both been there, in Jordan, but it was Gressil who we suspected had taken down Rudyard.

The two were an unlikely team. We had good intel that told us they despised each other, which was interesting given their powers were so similar. Olivier"s strength was iin provoking mercilessness. The two of them working together made a very dangerous force.

And they were now almost always at Phoenix"s left and right.

My hand was itching to press the call button on my phone. I had Lincoln"s number up on-screen.

I was just about to make the call when Phoenix reached up and pushed it back.

Definitely him.

I sighed. I"d almost blown it - thinking they were pulling a similar stunt.

Spence and Phoenix both started moving back towards their buildings. Spence was making good time while Phoenix seemed to be taking things more slowly, almost lingering.

Once Spence made it back to the Maddox, I let out a shaky sound of relief and checked my phone again. 11.45 p.m.

Why hasn"t Steph called?

I knew she was waiting for us at Hades with Dapper, Onyx, Samuel and Kaitlin. The rest of the Grigori were out patrolling, mostly in this area.

Steph had wanted to come and wait with me on the roof, but I"d talked her into staying at Hades instead, promising I"d give her minute-by-minute updates.

Phoenix finally reached the Brighton, easily slipped back onto the rood and unhooked the harness. He walked to the edge of the building and pulled the canister containing the Scripture from around his neck.

He"s going to check it.

The puffs of cold air stopped as I held my breath in panic, dreading his reaction. But then his demeanour changed. I couldn"t see his facial expressions but somehow I could tell he was smiling. He held the unopened scroll in front of him moved to the edge of the building and - I was sure - looked right at me before … he set the Scripture on fire.

My eyes shot between the sight of the burning Scripture and Lincoln, Griffin and Spence

- himself again - standing together, stunned as they too watched what Phoenix was doing.

„Jesus, he knows it"s fake," I said to myself, now standing up, getting ready.

My phone rang. „Move!" was all Lincoln bothered with before he hung up.

I didn"t need telling twice. I made for the stairwell and then straight to the waiting lift with the crate holding the door open. We"d planned for escape. Hell, we"d counted on it.

If Phoenix had know all along we were going to give him a fake Scripture, there was no way the one he"d given us was real. But why bother? Why set this whole thing up? Why follow through with it, do the whole cable act? All he"d managed to do was waste a couple of hours of everyone"s time and …
Oh.