The Gramm Curse (The Night Watchmen Series) (11 page)

“It can’t be true.”

I grab him by the shoulders and shake him hard. “Snap out of it!” I shout.

I think he might hit me. I think he might cry, but instead, he pulls me into a desperate hug. “This is all my fault. I’m sorry, Brother. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry I couldn’t save Dad. I’m sorry Mom left us. I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t anyone’s fault,” I say, barely able to breathe beneath the avalanche of suffocating emotions.

He pulls back, his glossy eyes searching mine. “I won’t lose you, even if it means I have to go to the Underground myself. I won’t. You’re my little brother.”

“No one will lose anyone,” I vow. “We’ll figure it out.” I pat him on the back, knowing it’s a lie, knowing that this is it… This is the beginning of my end.

WHEN I’M SATISFIED THAT JEZ
I
has cooled off, I undo the volation web. Gavin excuses himself for the night and disappears down the hall after Cassie. “We should leave them to some privacy,” I say to Jezi. She barely looks at me. The sorrow and regret she feels bounces off of my emotions. I know I should hug her, but I can’t bring myself to do it. I feel so…so broken; so bitter and hollow.

“We should get this cleaned up,” she says calmly.

“I’ll call Mack.” I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. It only takes one ring for him to answer.

“Was it successful?”

“No.”

A long pause.

“I’ll send a clean-up crew. I need you and Jezibelle here in the morning. Get some rest.”

“For what?” I ask, confused.

“The Culling. We’re short a guard team. I need you to be here.” He coughs.

“It’s been a long night, and I really-”

“Be here. This one should be…interesting.” Something in the way he says interesting unsettles me. “See you in the a.m.”

The phone hangs up.

“What was that about?” Jezi asks, standing behind me.

“We have to monitor the Culling tomorrow.”

“Are you kidding me?”she snaps.

I turn to face her, too tired to register how I feel. “I wish I was. He’s sending a clean-up crew. I’ll let Gavin know, so we can take off.” She nods, and I make my way down the hall and knock on his door.

“What?” Cassie says. Her voice is hoarse and strained with emotion.

“Tell
Gav that a clean-up crew is on the way. I’ll uh…talk to you two tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I hear through the door.

“Want me to take you home?” I ask Jezi when I make my way back into the living room. I feel like a zombie, like a mannequin controlled by resignation. I think I don’t know how to feel anymore, like I’m permanently shut off.

She doesn’t say anything for a long moment as she stares at the blood pooling in the bucket underneath Joe. “We killed him for nothing.”

“I know.”

“I’m a horrible person.”

I throw my arm over her shoulder. “No, Jezi. Never that.”

She looks up at me, tears swimming in her eyes. “I’m going to walk home. I need some air.”

“Are you sure?”

She sniffs and nods, then slides out from under my arm. A moment later, the front door clicks shut behind me.

I stay until the crew arrives, and then make my way to my truck. Once home, I crash out the moment my face connects with my pillow. I don't think I even dream. When my alarm buzzes the next morning, I groan and roll over to shut it off. All I can think about is the Witch in the chair, facing his unjust death; a death I had the power to prevent.

After taking a long, hot shower, I dress and head for the Academy. Cars are already piling in with anxious novices. Tension and excitement floats in the air, so thick that I can almost taste it. I can’t help but think back to my Culling. Not once did I feel excitement; only dread. I had no one to look for in the audience, not even Gavin. He was in class. I was scared as hell and even more pissed off that my mother didn’t show. I thought for sure she would at least appear, even if she didn’t stay.

When I walk into the auditorium, Mack finds me. He smiles, but the smile never reaches his eyes. “You’re late. Get backstage. When this is over, we have something to talk about, something you’re not going to like.” I don’t even bother asking what he’s talking about and walk past him. Every face blends into the next as I take my place on the side of the stage. A few people try to talk to me, but I stay as still as a statue, not wanting to be bothered. Jezi strides across the stage and takes her place near the back. Her eyes find mine, and a sick feeling settles in the pit of my stomach. A frown pulls on her lips, and then she looks away.

Minutes tick by as others enter the auditorium; some novices, some parents. I scan the crowd, ensuring that everything is as it should be. Through the door, a girl with pale blonde hair and a small frame walks in. Instead of drifting away, my gaze stops, and I feel like I’ve been catapulted into my past, into all the fear and the pain and the abandonment I went through. She looks rattled, like a wild bird caught in a trap; like an extremely powerful bird that needs to be set free.

I can’t keep my eyes off of her as she’s rushed down the aisle toward the stage by a girl with long, brown hair. They exchange words, and then the rattled girl walks over to her seat. Something about her is so fragile, so broken. Her hair is long and pale like the moon. Her lips are full and pink, and I can’t keep my eyes from them. Her deep blue eyes, eyes like the strongest flowing river, find mine. My heart speeds up a little, and my emotions flick back on. I almost don’t notice it, and for some reason, I don’t want to turn them back off.

Something in her gaze penetrates my soul, like she sees through the tiny cracks in my steel walls. It’s like she knows I’m a few short breaths from my last, and it scares the hell out of me. It confuses me.

I sense Jezi in my mind and force myself to look away, to not give this girl any more attention, but I struggle to keep my gaze on anything else. She’s a magnetic force calling to me, pulling at me. My grip tightens around the handle of my gun, and I suck in a breath. I don’t breathe again until the music for the Culling begins, and then Mack makes his way down the center aisle. My phone goes off in my pocket. I pull it out just enough to see I’ve received a message from Gavin.

The Middletons are missing. Never returned home after last night. At their place now investigating. This shit just got real.

A sick feeling, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, spreads through every inch of my body. Terror and rage and a multitude of other emotions stir within my stomach, churning a fiery batch of acid. My fingers curl over the phone before shoving it back in my pocket. I glance over at Jezi, sending the mental thought to her. Her eyes grow wide. I glance back to the twenty-seven novices in the center of the stage, searching for their daughter. I’ve never seen her before. I don’t even know her name. My eyes keep returning to the girl with pale hair; the girl who scans the crowd, looking on the verge of tears; the girl who is rattled beyond words.

It can’t be her. Please don’t be her.

The music stops, and Mack delivers his speech. I can’t focus on a single word as my hands shake. The earth feels like it’s stopped spinning, like gravity has snuck away from me. Another Hunter I haven’t seen before bumps into me. “Come on, man. Time to round ‘em up.”

I follow behind him as the novices are rushed backstage into their cubicles. I lift a hand to my mouth, unable to do anything but bite my nails as each name is called. I brace myself each time, waiting for the last name to be spoken. Eighteen names drift by, and each time, I pray the girl with pale hair will appear as someone other than the Middleton’s daughter.

“Faye Middleton,” I hear Nathaniel, the prick, call from behind me. I glance over my shoulder and feel my stomach drop to the floor. It’s her. She passes by me, ghostly pale, and I want to grab her. I want to shield her from the fear I see so plainly on her face…the fear I myself live with day in and day out, but she drifts by like a breeze…like something I never stand a chance in catching.

She crosses the stage with more bravery than I can comprehend and stops in front of Mack. “Faye Middleton,” Mack says. I could rip his head off just in the way he’s looking at her; the same way he looked at me that day I crossed that stage and stood before him. He knows he’s looking at this girl who clearly has no idea what’s going on with her parents, and he has no intention of telling her the truth, of pointing out the fault behind all of this.

Of pointing to me.

“Are you ready to begin?” he asks.

She turns to the crowd, her eyes hungrily roaming over each and every face. She’s looking for them. My heart clenches up, shriveling into a worthless lump. Mack’s eyes find mine, and he knows I know. He shakes his head, ever so slightly, ensuring that my lips remain sealed.

Clara clears her throat and says, “Faye, he asked you a question.”

Faye turns back to Mack. There’s a bravery to be admired in her stance, in the way she’s facing this head on, despite the pieces crumbling down around her. She whispers something, but it’s so quiet I can’t hear it. I find myself leaning in just to embrace the softness of her voice.

Mack smiles patiently. “Everyone is nervous on the day of the Culling,” Mack says knowingly. “I was a wreck the day of mine.”

Laughter erupts in the audience, jerking me back to the present.

Mack winks at her and says, “Your parents will be proud.”

That bastard.
He knew, and he didn’t say a word to me, and he’s making her go through with this? I want to crush him.

“So are you ready to begin?” he asks her again. She nods hesitantly. “Let’s start with the quartz then, shall we? Let’s see just what you are.” He lifts the pink quartz from the podium and holds it out. Her hands wrap around it. Like tradition, Clara holds her hands over the quartz, spelling it to life.

I try to remove Russell and Mary’s face from my mind. I try to keep from hearing the pride in his voice the night before. Hunter. He said she would be a Hunter. An uncomfortable heat wells underneath my jacket.
Shut it off
, I tell myself, but I’m having a hard time doing it. I’m having a hard time making her go through this alone.

“It’s okay,” I hear Mack say.

Nothing is happening. Why isn’t the quartz doing anything? Whispers spread through the room like wildfire. My hands clench against my gun as I resist the urge to rush to her side.

“It doesn’t always work right away,” Mack says with an awkward laugh. I don’t like the hesitancy in his voice. “Not until you clear your mind and allow it to connect with you. Once it does, I’ll read the quartz for you. Please, clear your mind.”

The seconds pass by like hopeless hours, until a sliver of light peeks out from under the quartz. It brightens the entire auditorium. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and I find myself wanting to step towards, wanting to bathe in its purity. Flickers of electric power spark off of her small frame and branch out to the voltaic waves coursing through the air.

She’s a ticking
time bomb of power.

Jezi brushes the edge of my mind.
“What the hell is happening?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you feel the power pulsing off of her? It’s stronger than anything I’ve ever felt before.”

“Yeah.”
I look back at Faye, eyes scrunched in curiosity. I don’t know what they’re seeing within the quartz, but whatever it is, it has Mack entranced. He’s wearing a gloating smile, the same smile he wears when showing off his collection of weapons he’s gathered from around the world.
“I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”

“I can’t get a good read,” Mack says over his shoulder to Clara. “It’s flipping between the two.”

“That’s not possible, Jaxen,”
Jezi says, doubt and skepticism looped around her tone.
“What is he getting at?”

I glance over at the crowd as murmurs begin to spread.

“This wasn’t…it isn’t possible,” Mack says, his voice cracking a little. My head snaps up. The faint scent of charred wood drifts over the stage.

“Jaxen!”
Jezi says just as a blast of light explodes out of the quartz.

The lights begin to dim and flicker on and off. I can barely register what’s happening. Faye…she’s doing this. She’s sucking all the power from the room and from every Watchman in here. I grip my gun and turn toward the crowd as the audience jumps out of their seats, cowering from whatever it is that’s happening with her. The other Watchmen are on full alert now, waiting for any cue from Mack should something go wrong.

“Hang tight,”
I tell Jezi in a calm tone.

“Clara,
unspell the quartz! NOW!” Mack shouts. Another surge of power ignites from Faye’s body, pulling on everything around us. She’s standing there, shaking from head to toe. It takes everything in me not to scoop her off the stage and take her away from all of this; to protect her from herself.