“Does she? Does having a mean mom justify what she’s doing? She betrayed the Watchers by—”
“They betrayed her by not taking care of her when her mother so obviously wasn’t! God, you talk like they’re holy. You’re the one who’s always questioning the Watchers’ traditions, telling me over and over that we can do better. But when it comes down to it, you’re totally fine with the Watchers staying the way we are. We find a friend in trouble, and you want to turn it right over to them. Let them discuss her. Censure her. Maybe even lock her up. Did you know that’s what the bottom floor of the castle is? It’s not ruins. It’s cells.”
I take the information like a blow to the stomach. They told me the bottom floor was off-limits because it wasn’t safe. Not because it was a prison. “I—I didn’t know.”
“No, because you’ve never seen it. You never have to see anything you don’t want to. You don’t see that the Watchers have become completely useless—a sad, broken society desperately trying to hang on to the glory days that will never come again.”
“If you felt this way, why didn’t you talk to me? I thought you liked being part of it. You were so good at it.”
Artemis finally sits back, letting out a long breath. “How could I tell you I wasn’t happy, when I had what you wanted? I knew you’d trade places with me in a heartbeat. You worship the Watchers.”
“I don’t worship them.”
“You do.”
“It’s important to me. There’s a difference. It’s our family heritage. In his diary, Dad was—”
“Dad’s dead. That’s our legacy. Dad’s dead, and Mom lied to both of us our whole lives. About everything.” She brings her hands to her face and covers her eyes. “I felt so bad that she chose me first in the fire. I wanted you to know that someone would always choose you first, always protect you. I wanted to be a damn Watcher so I could make the whole world safer for you. All these years, Mom could have mentioned that you’d be a Slayer one day and I’d be absolutely pointless.” Her shoulders shake, and I don’t know whether she’s crying or laughing bitterly.
Would she really have left if it wasn’t for me? Does she want to now?
“I’ll always need you,” I whisper. “You’re my sister.”
“It’s not the same, though. We can’t pretend it ever will be again.”
She’s right. As much as I don’t want her to be, she is. Everything is different. “I won’t say anything about Honora,” I offer as a bridge over the chasm between us. “You can decide what to do about that.”
“Thank you,” she whispers, but she doesn’t look at me.
Leo gets back in, silent with his own internal strife. He starts the car, and we’re sealed in the hum of the engine and the road beneath the tires. No one talks.
I remember the split between the two girls in Cosmina’s photo. Slayers are supposed to be alone, Cosmina had said at the pit. Was that my destiny too?
26
LEO SLAMS THE CAR INTO park as we stop in the castle garage.
Something else has been bugging me, and I have to get it out. “Leo, we need to talk about the possibility that my mom was setting you up.”
“What?” Leo and Artemis exclaim at the same time.
I’ve had the whole miserable car ride to think about it. My mom with an out-of-the-blue demand that Leo—and Leo alone—go see a Slayer. When she’s never made any effort to bring a Slayer in. And no matter what that vampire said, she showed up right after we got there. When Leo was supposed to be there by himself. We can’t know that it wasn’t a setup.
“I don’t want it to be true,” I say. “But think about it.” I lay out my reasoning.
“That’s barely coincidence.” Artemis opens her door.
“Hear me out! There’s something else.” She pauses, and I cringe, realizing it’s yet another secret I kept from her. “There was another hellhound. It found me in Shancoom when I was checking on Cillian. I lured it here. Mom killed it. But she didn’t put the castle on lockdown or even tell anyone. Which means she must have been expecting it in some way or was at least confident that it wasn’t after us. So she had to have known it was after something else. And Doug said he had a contact he was supposed to meet. A Smythe.”
“You think Mom is setting up meetings with demons.” I can’t tell from Artemis’s voice how she feels about my theory.
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
“But why would she want me dead?” Leo asks.
“Maybe she figured out you were training me? She really doesn’t want me to be a Slayer.”
“Bad enough to try to kill Leo?” Artemis sounds dubious. I don’t blame her. It’s extreme.