Evernight (The Night Watchmen Series Book 2) (40 page)

T
HE WEAPONS ROOM IS NOTHIN
G
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.

“You’re not the only ones asked to put your lives on the line. Every Night Watchman, every Elite, we’re all putting them on the line. We’re all holding out hope that the Everlasting will be the answer to a century’s old evil that won’t seem to sizzle out. Are you up for that task?”

He staring at me, and I match his gaze. I match his intensity.

“Would I be here if I wasn’t?” I retort, forgetting about everyone else in the room. Forgetting about their opinions that peck at me like pestering crows, or about the fact that I’m gaining nothing in return. No guarantee. No promise of return or safety. No solid answer to what happens when the seals are broken.

And right now, I don’t care. I just want them to see me as the person
I
want to be. The one with all the strength, courage, and bravery that I see in Jaxen’s eyes when he looks at me. That I hear from Weldon when he’s chewing me out.

Because I can be that girl.

The general straightens his shoulders and moves his attention back to the rest of us. “Now then, General Tillman has ordered a Double-Wave attack. A strong team of Elites will be sent in to clear out as many Darkyns as they can, granting us a path to the seal. When we get the go ahead, we will escort Middleton into the crypt and straight to the seal. From that point on, it will be in Middleton’s hands.”

I feel like a walking contradiction. I’m slightly nervous and partially confident. A million simulations could not prepare me for the reality I’m about to face, and a very small, very tiny part of me feels sort of livened by the prospect.

One of the Witches walks over to me, carrying a crimson piece of folded fabric. I already know what’s nestled in between the soft creases. The very blade my parents gave their freedom for. The very blade I nearly lost my own life for.

The general pulls me off to the side, away from everyone. “You can back out,” he says, so quietly I think I mishear him.

“What?” I ask, looking up at him.

“I’m not supposed to say this, but you can back out. If you’re going to, now is your chance.”

I shake my head, trying to make sense of what he’s offering me. “I-I don’t understand,” I say, looking past him.

My heart jolts to a stop.

An exit sign is right above his head, resting above the door we entered through.

The premonition. The two doors.

“You’re young. Way too young to be in this situation. No one would blame you if you chose to disappear. If you chose not to bring down the Coven as we know it,” the general says. “So what I’m saying is… if you want that chance at freedom, this is your last moment to get it. I won’t say anything. I won’t stop you.”

I look back at my friends, at Jaxen, and all I can think about is how far we’ve come. How without this, I’ll never have a chance at knowing if my parents are still alive or not. We’ll never have a chance at true happiness.

I swallow down his offer. Tuck it far away so that I’m not tempted to take it.

“I’m not backing out of anything,” I say firmly, and then walk back over to Weldon and Jaxen.

The general follows, wearing no sign of what we just discussed on his face. “The Dagger of Retribution must remain on your persons,” the general says as I take the Dagger from the opened fabric. He turns his attention on Weldon. “You
must
remain by her side. No matter what. When the seal is broken, you are to Shadow Walk her back to this city.”

“It’s handy having a demon around, isn’t it?” Weldon asks with an air of mockery. “I think this calls for some sort of a promotion or something.”

The general doesn’t buy into it. “It’s important that we keep Middleton safe at all costs. She’s the only thing in this world that can bring our salvation, or our complete and utter destruction.”

Silence awakens and devours the entire room. In that one statement, he’s sized up my entire purpose—my entire reason for being—only this time, I don’t buckle under the weight of every eye pointed in my direction, because the truth is, I am that dangerous. I am that powerful.

And I’ve only just begun to realize it.

W
E HAVE EXACTLY THREE MINUTE
S
until the clock strikes 2300 hours. Until we’re transported out of Ethryeal City and dropped over the top of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I look around under the moonlight, finding hundreds of bodies decked in black armored suits and strapped with duffel bags packed full of weapons.

It’s surreal.

The four commanding generals, including Sterling, are somewhere up at the front of the Elite Unit, barking our orders and tactics to each affinity team. Weldon stands right next to me, and Jaxen’s on the other side of me. Jezi’s next to him, and Gavin and Cassie are directly behind me.

And somehow, I’m okay.