Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker 3)

Lily nodded, knowing this was the smartest choice. She looked up at Lillian and saw her staring back.

Think of the last line you’re unwilling to cross. That’s the line you must cross in order to win.

Like you and the bomb?

Exactly.

I’m not like you, Lillian. And murdering Grace is not my last line.

After the meeting, Lily made her way to the tent she had been assigned, hoping that there was something clean for her to change into. Just outside her tent, Breakfast and Una caught up with her.

“So what are we doing?” Breakfast asked, holding open the tent flap.

“What do you mean, what are we doing?” Lily asked, not getting it. She ducked inside and Una and Breakfast followed her.

“What are we going to do to stop those crazy bastards from nuking a million innocent people,” Una clarified, looking a little wild around the eyes as she closed the flap behind them.

“Well, I’m going to try to claim Toshi, and once I see what’s going on in Bower City . . .” Lily began. Una waved a hand in the air to cut her off.

“Uh-uh. Not good enough,” she said. “Even if you do manage to assassinate Grace, the Hive will still be alive, and you know the batshit brigade is going to want to exterminate them with that bomb.”

“We need to make the nuke go away,” Breakfast rephrased a bit more calmly. “As long as it’s out there, someone is going to be threatening to use it.”

Lily sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I know,” she said. “I have someone on that problem.”

There was a pause while Breakfast and Una decided who would be the one to speak.

“Who?” Una asked.

Lily twisted her han

ds. “Carrick.” They stared at her, too shocked to speak. “I know, I know,” Lily continued, agonizing over her decision, “he’s probably going to murder about a dozen people to fulfill my order, and those deaths are going to be on me.” Lily’s stomach soured and her mouth warped into a sickly smile. “But if I don’t use Carrick, than I only have one other option. My last line.”

Breakfast paused and then inhaled sharply through his teeth. “I’m almost too scared to ask,” he said, turning to Una with a grimace.

“I’ll make a mind mosaic to find the bomb, and then steal instructions for how to dismantle it from Alaric’s memories,” Lily said.

“Come again?” Breakfast said, confused.

“A mind mosaic is when I use my claimed like an array of cameras. I look through all of your eyes to find what I’m looking for. Sometimes I have to look through your memories, too, sort of like fast-forwarding through recordings on a surveillance camera,” she explained. “You don’t even know I’m there, but I’m spying through you.”

Una looked horrified. “Please tell me you’ve never done that before,” she said.

“Once. When I was learning, and only for about a second,” Lily admitted. “Rowan told me that witches do it all the time,” she said, becoming defensive at their accusing looks.

“But not you,” Breakfast said hopefully.

“No. Not me,” Lily said. “At least, not yet. But if Carrick doesn’t find the bomb or doesn’t dismantle it for whatever reason, I’ll have to try it.”

“Yes, you will,” Una said, looking at the ground. Breakfast turned to argue with her but she continued before he could say anything. “She’ll have to, Stuart. A million people . . .” She trailed off, the scope of it overwhelming her.

“It’s wrong,” he said quietly.

“I know that, Breakfast,” Lily snapped. “I asked a man who tortured me—who tortured and murdered my father—for help in order to avoid it. Is that the right thing to do? I don’t know. I’m trying to do what’s right, but I don’t know if there is such a thing as a right option anymore. Just different kinds of wrong.”

Breakfast narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t get too comfortable with that notion.”

Carrick walked back into Lillian’s camp, slipping through the occupied throngs unnoticed.