Thrall (35 page)

“Wait,” someone said in a hushed voice. “Okay. Clear.”

I was dragged out of the van and across a lawn. The grass felt crisp with frost beneath my feet. Then I was pulled up a few wooden steps and dragged over a threshold. Inside was warm. Familiar. I knew exactly where I was before they ripped the hood off.

The living room of the Guard’s house was packed. Gretchen and Thane sat on the couch, Hale stood by the mantle, and a half-dozen strangers filled the other seats. Dad was deep in conversation with a sinewy old man I’d never seen before. Lucas sat on the staircase, watching the living room. He was the first to see me. He stared, frozen. I thought I saw a flicker of emotion in his eyes, but he looked away before I could be sure.

“Caught one,” Matt said. Everyone else looked up as I was shoved forward into the living room. The sinewy man turned around.

“Excellent,” he said, eyeing me impersonally. “Take it downstairs. I’ll be there shortly.”

“Braedyn!” Dad shoved the sinewy man aside and reached me in a heartbeat. He wrenched me out of Matt’s hands and shielded me in his arms, backing into the foyer. I felt his hand on my cheek, gently brushing the tender skin. Whoever had hit me must have left a mark.

The newcomers shared a stunned look, and then leapt into action.

“Wait!” Hale shouted above the chaos. “She’s on our side!” I felt Dad’s arms tighten around me, but we were outnumbered. In another moment, I’d be pulled away from him.

“Enough!” The sinewy man’s voice cut through the din like a cannon’s crack. The voices died down, but the tension in the room was near the breaking point.

“Hold still,” Dad murmured. He used his dagger to cut through the plastic tie binding my hands, and then fumbled with my gag. As soon as it slackened, I pulled it off and threw it across the room, glaring at the newcomers.

“Murphy,” Matt said, stunned. “Defending a demon? Now I really have seen everything.”

“Stay back,” Dad growled.

I studied the sinewy man over Dad’s shoulder. He was an older man, with three faint scars travelling down one side of his neck and disappearing under his shirt. He looked hardened, battle-worn. And decidedly unfriendly. He held up a hand toward us, like he was trying to calm a snarling dog, and glared at his soldiers. They gave us some space. Not a lot of space - they still looked ready to attack at one signal from their leader.

“Braedyn.” Hale read my panic. “This is Colonel Marx and his team.”

The sinewy man, Colonel Marx, turned to Hale. “Explain, Major.”

“She’s one of us, sir,” Hale said, pushing through the crowd urgently. “Murphy raised her. She thought she was human until three months ago. She knows what’s at stake, and she’s on our side.”

“And all of you knew this?” Marx asked, surprised. Thane and Gretchen shared a tight grimace but nodded.

Hale gestured to the stairs. “All of us except for Lucas.” Lucas was staring into the room, his face ashen. Gretchen turned to him, but had to look away from the blame in his eyes.

“So this demon is... safe?” Marx looked uncertain.

“No.” A slender, athletic woman glared at me. She had the same edge to her Gretchen had, an outward toughness that seemed to hide the pain of a great loss. Another spotter, I realized. “We followed a residual trace to her room. She’s manipulated at least one mind.” The newcomers shifted, eyeing me with distrust.

“I have the situation under control, Colonel,” Hale said. But he couldn’t look at me.

Marx frowned and turned to Matt. “Where did you find her?”

“In Old Town, by the rave, just like we were warned.”

“She’s the one who called to warn us,” Dad said, his frustration erupting.

“What was she doing there?” Marx turned to me. I felt the eyes of the room find me.

“I... I didn’t know where else to go.” I glanced at Hale. His face tightened, but I didn’t read the warning until it was too late. “After everything that happened with Lucas...”

“Lucas?” Marx glanced at Lucas on the stairs, his body tensing. “What happened with Lucas?” His voice was low, steely. I felt Dad’s hand tighten on my arm and didn’t answer. Marx took a step toward Lucas. “Tell me.”

Lucas saw Hale’s panic. His eyes darted toward me, scared. Marx followed his gaze, eyes narrowing. I realized it must look to them like I was trying to influence Lucas. By the time Lucas spoke, it was already too late. “It was just a kiss.”

That was all it took. Marx only had to nod, and his team piled onto us, pulling me out of Dad’s arms. Hale tried to intervene, but Thane, Gretchen, and Lucas stayed rooted to the spot.

“Braedyn, run!” Dad shouted, struggling against the three soldiers who wrestled him back. He was larger than all but one of them, but they outnumbered him.

I twisted against the hands that held me and broke free, but they moved to latch onto me again. I swung out, kicking someone in the side and shoving them away. For a moment, it was just a fit young soldier and me. His eyes were hard, intelligent; he was ready for this fight. I saw the door beyond him and moved, feinting. He lunged toward my feint and I sprinted for the door, feeling my wings snap around me.

“To your right!” The newcomer spotter raced forward, eyes fixed on me. The soldier I’d just dodged was faster than I’d expected. He caught me around the shoulders, spinning me off balance. I hit the floor and rolled back to my feet in one motion, but my wings canted crazily, exposing me. Three of them were ringing me now. I was only vaguely aware of Hale, shouting at Marx over the chaos of the fight.

At that moment, Dad broke free and tackled one of the soldiers. Another turned, surprised. Cloaked beneath my wings once more, I darted for him, sweeping his foot out from under him.

“Sean, left, Caleb, straight ahead!” Their spotter pointed at me, an unerring compass for her unit to follow. I felt my lips pulling back in a snarl of frustration. Her eyes, locked onto my face, narrowed with determination. “Careful!”

I spun to face the last soldier, but found two more backing him. They all had daggers gleaming in their hands.

“No!” Dad’s voice was ragged with emotion. “Braedyn, uncloak yourself.” I glanced at him. Two of the newcomers had pinned him to the floor. A third was sliding another plastic tie over his wrists to hold him, but he was only focused on me. “Do it! Do it now!”

I did as he asked, willing the wings to retract. The soldiers surrounding me spread out, keeping me in the center of a ring of blades.

“Easy,” one of the soldiers said. They advanced, and I retreated. I was dimly aware that they were herding me back into the room, but I couldn’t see a way past the daggers. I felt the wall at my back. They pushed forward until I was hemmed into the corner of the living room. By the time I realized there was no way out of this, five of the newcomers had circled me, blades in every fist. It was very quiet.

Marx approached and the soldiers parted for him. He held one of the Guard’s daggers loosely in his hand. Hale followed on Marx’s heels, but the soldiers ringing me forced him back.

“Don’t,” Hale said. “Don’t throw this opportunity away. We need her, Marx.” Hale was focused on Marx, desperate to reach the older man with his words. Marx had his eyes fixed on me. He looked completely calm. I realized with a twisting sensation in my gut that Marx meant to kill me. Hale’s voice, already urgent, sharpened. “We need her if we’re going to have any hope of stopping this war.”

“Give me one reason why.” Marx didn’t turn to face Hale. He kept his eyes riveted to my face.

“She’s one of them,” Hale said, scrambling for the right words to reach Marx. “She might be able to...”

But Marx cut him off. “Not you.” He pointed at me with the tip of his dagger. “You.” I couldn’t look away from his eyes. They were crisp, devoid of empathy.

“Ais is here,” I said. Hale glanced at me sharply. “She’s not in South America. She was at the rave.”

“Easy to say and hard to prove,” Marx said. “Do better.”

“The sword,” I said quietly.

“What sword?”

I shifted my eyes to Matt, afraid to move. “One of your soldiers has it.”

Marx looked back. Matt nodded and jogged out the door. In a moment he’d returned, carrying the sword. Gretchen and the new spotter reacted as if they’d seen a ghost. Their spotter straightened, flushed.

Marx noticed the movement. “Dina?”

His spotter, Dina, looked unsteady. Instead of answering Marx, she glanced at Gretchen. “The sword. Do you...?” Dina asked breathlessly.

“Yeah. I see it.” Gretchen’s jaw was tight, her eyes riveted to the sword.

Marx turned back to the sword. “What is it?”

“It has a dream-aspect.” Gretchen turned to Hale, dropping her voice urgently. “It has to be one of
theirs.
This sword belongs to one of the Three.”

The soldiers traded surprised glances. Suddenly I wasn’t the center of attention. I held my breath.

“It’s some kind of trick.” Thane crossed the distance to Matt in a few long steps. “Let me see that.”

“I know what I’m looking at,” Gretchen said, snapping.

Marx pushed through the soldiers. “Watch her,” he said, gesturing to three of the guards. They turned back to me, laser-focused. Everyone else was staring at the sword. Gretchen’s eyes found me; they were filled with questions. I looked at the sword, and saw what she had seen: the faint haze of another sword. The longer I stared at the hazy image, the sharper it became. It was as though a second sword was sharing the same physical space as the first, in another world superimposed over our own.

Thane took the sword gingerly from Matt and walked to a table lamp. He bent his slight frame to hold the hilt under the light, and then straightened silently.

Marx shifted his weight, uneasy. “Thane?”

“Gretchen’s right.” Thane was cradling the sword in his hands like a precious thing. “This was Semangelof’s. Her name is engraved in the hilt.” Thane looked at me. “How did you get this?”

Before I could answer, Marx took the sword out of Thane’s hands. “Impossible.”

“Unless someone else has figured out how to forge a sword with a dream-aspect, that weapon belonged to one of the Three,” Dina said quietly.

“Then how, exactly, did it end up in the hands of a demon?” Marx asked. The room turned back to me. I saw a range of emotions on their faces - suspicion, fear, confusion... and, on Hale’s face, hope. They were all waiting for my answer.

“Sansenoy gave it to me so we could stop Ais,” I said.

Marx smiled coldly. “You expect us to believe an angel gave this sword to you?”

“I’m telling the truth.”

“You’re telling us exactly what we want to hear to save your own skin. An angel would never hand over this sword to a demon. And a demon,” he smiled at me wryly. “A demon would never
willingly
give an angel’s sword to the Guard.”

“Colonel,” Matt said, stepping forward hesitantly. “She dropped the sword when we caught her.”

“Of course she did,” Marx said, as though this confirmed everything.

“We almost left it behind, but she shouted her head off until one of us grabbed it.” Matt glanced at Gretchen, uneasy. “She told me her name, like that would mean something to me. It took Keats almost half a minute to gag her, but she never tried to use
the call
on us.” Matt looked around the room. The newcomers glanced at me, uncertain now.

“Let her go,” Hale said quietly.

“She’s Lilitu, Hale.” But even Marx sounded unsure.

“Let them both go,” Hale ordered. The soldiers guarding me stepped back, lowering their weapons. I pushed past them and ran to the foyer. Dad was still lying on the floor. One of the newcomers freed his hands. Two others helped him up. Half a second later, Dad crossed the space between us and caught me in a fierce hug. Judging by the way his arms fastened around me, he was never planning on letting me go. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Thane take the sword out of Marx’s hands.

“You okay?” Dad whispered into my hair. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. The tension was broken. Several of the newcomers eyed me, curious.

Matt approached us gingerly. “You actually spoke with Sansenoy? Does that mean he’s come back to help us?” A thrill of excitement shot through the room. Even Marx turned, waiting for my answer. I looked at the Guard from the safety of Dad’s arms.

“No,” I said. “We have to deal with Ais on our own.” The momentary jubilation faded.

“Winter Solstice is tomorrow,” Gretchen said, hollowly. “The rest of our forces are in South America.”

Hale recovered first. “We don’t have any time to waste. I’ll call Leadership. Let them know that Ais is here.”

I pulled away from Dad to catch Hale’s arm. He turned, his attention focused on me. “I know why Gretchen hasn’t found the hunting grounds. They move it every night. Karayan called it a travelling rave.”

Hale nodded, but he didn’t seem surprised. “We figured that out after your phone call. We have a bigger problem now. Gretchen stumbled on to a warehouse the Lilitu are using for a barracks. Thane was right about the Thrall. We’re estimating they have somewhere between twenty and thirty men so far.” Hale glanced at Marx. “We couldn’t figure out why they’d be setting up such a strong force here. But that’s when we thought Ais was in South America. If she’s setting up camp here... Well, Thane knows more about this than anyone.” Hale gestured at Thane.

“I’ve been conferring with the other archivists,” Thane said. “We believe it will take great concentration and power for Ais to force open the Wall. She’ll need to prepare the site of the doorway, and she’ll do everything she can to ensure she’s not interrupted once she’s begun.”

“That would explain the Thrall,” Marx said. “We won’t be able to fight through even twenty of them easily.”

Thane nodded. “If we want to stop her from breaching the Wall, our best bet is to find the spot she plans to open the doorway and disrupt her preparations.”

“Failing that,” Hale said grimly. “We’ll have to contain the Lilitu she lets into this world.”

Thane nodded. “As I said. Our best bet is to stop Ais before she opens the doorway.”

“We’ll go. We can scout the area Gretchen found. See what we can see.” Marx was already gesturing to his team. “Dina, Keats, Sean. You’re with me. The rest of you are with Matt.” Marx and his soldiers left the house. Before Matt followed them out, he pulled Gretchen close. They shared a kiss. I glanced at Lucas and found him staring at me. His hazel eyes were guarded. My heart lurched painfully. The Guard had forgiven me. That didn’t mean Lucas would. I heard Matt and Gretchen talking behind me.