I glared at him. “And you didn’t think to use the Lorica’s damn Eyes to check that it was me?”
“You’ve gotten really good at hiding your aura. I’m told it’s tougher to track your signature down these days. Maybe it’s that black room stuff you’re involved in, makes you harder to spot now, like a shadow.” He frowned at me. “What were you doing, anyway?”
“Enchanted it,” I said, gesturing at my neck. “Needed a place of power, so went to my dad’s house. Using it to seal the Eldest.”
Royce stared at me hard for a second, then nodded firmly. “I believe you.”
I didn’t care that he did. I was going to push through with creating the seal, with locking away those fuckers forever. My fingers grazed the amulet, and a tingle ran up my hand. Instinctively, I could tell that my mom’s shade was still out there, somewhere not so far away. Good job, Asher. He’d gotten them out safely.
“Right,” Royce said, groaning as he pushed himself to his feet, brushing blades of grass off his pants. “I guess I’m headed back. Maybe give us a warning next time you do something fishy with that metal, huh?”
“Right,” I said, staring glumly at the grass. “Thanks.”
“Yeah,” Royce said, the air between us so thick in its awkwardness. It was weird, starting to think of him as a friend. And I hated what I was about to do, because friends don’t do other friends dirty like that.
“Well. I guess I’m headed back to the Lorica now. Check in with the Heart, tell them everything’s in order, call in some Mouths and Wings to clean all this shit up.”
“Okay,” I said, giving him a flat smile.
I watched his body, waiting for some kind of signal to tell me that he was preparing to teleport. I’d never noticed it before, but there it was, a little flicker of light in his eyes. And when I spotted it, I reached out and grabbed his ankles.
“Holy shi – ” Royce shouted, as his body dissipated into thin air. I might have said something, too, except that I disappeared with him, teleported as a passenger through his power.
I needed to hitch a ride, see.
I wanted to have a few words with the Heart.
Chapter 25
Like a jigsaw, piece by piece, the world came slipping back into order. The warmth of controlled temperature, whether regulated by technology or by magic, rushed over my skin. The air, it smelled like fire.
Being in the great council of the Heart felt like being in a real heart’s chambers, truthfully. Its light was blood red. Strange shapes skittered across the walls, evoking the pulse of cells and organs. From someplace I couldn’t identify came a steady, rhythmic noise, like the drums a shaman might use to keep time as he crossed between worlds – like the beating of an actual heart.
Royce stamped his feet, kicking me off his legs, muttering harsh, abrupt curses. He glared at me. I would have apologized, but the commotion was attracting the attention of – the others.
The Scions, gathered there in a circle within the heart of the Heart. They stood ringed around a spherical grid, what I quickly took to be a map of the earth, not unlike the one the Eyes referred to within the Lorica’s great library.
Above it rotated a ring of crystals, all of them the same red as the beam that the Heart so lovingly sent to do its dirty work. It must have been the mechanism they used to channel their destructive energies. Some of the Scions were talking among themselves, gesturing at the three-dimensional map, but many more were looking over their shoulders, staring at Royce, and at me. One approached.
“Dustin,” she hissed. “You shouldn’t be here.”
I peeled myself off the floor, scratching at the itch of sticky, half-drying blood on my cheek and my chest. “Odessa,” I greeted lazily. “It’s nice to see you again.” I pushed past her, but her hand reached out and clamped around my upper arm like an iron manacle.
Scion and shield-maiden of the Lorica, Odessa specialized in erecting massive forcefields, making her a defensive asset for the organization. Too bad she couldn’t defend my family.
“You must know that this was a mistake,” she said. “Royce called off the attack. You must leave. There is nothing more you can do.”
“Oh, there’s plenty I can do,” I said, laughing, drunk with power, with fury, as I stumbled for the ring of Scions at the Heart’s center. A few stepped back, and when I realized that they feared me, my heart bloomed with pride, with lust. But many more stood their ground, raising their chins. Who was I against the combined might of the Lorica’s ruling council?
I was dying to find out.
“Leave now and we will be merciful,” called a man from the front of the ring. I didn’t recognize him, but then again, it was hard to identify most of the Scions. They wore glamours to keep their identities hidden, even if they only huddled in the gloom of the Heart’s chamber. Like rats. Like cowards.
“Actually,” I said, stalking ever forward, “I think I’ll stay, thanks very much.”
Royce materialized before me, his hand held out against my chest, his eyes hard with warning. “Dustin. You don’t want to do this.”
“Oh,” I said. “But I do. These people threatened my family when all I want to do is help.” I bent my head so I could see behind Royce’s bulk, locking eyes with the Scions. “Did you fucking hear me? All I ever wanted to do was help, and you fucking tried to murder my family.”