FIVE
“WAIT.” SHAY’S HAND WAS gripping my arm, holding me
back even though I hadn’t yet started to go anywhere. “You’re
leaving now?”
“We only have a
window of hours before an elder Nightshade patrol is out on the
mountain, if indeed the younger wolves are still taking patrol
routes—which we are betting on for the time being,” Anika said.
“Speed is essential if we hope to make contact. We’ve got the time
zone working in our favor, but that’s about it.”
“Time zone?” I
asked. “What do you mean?”
“It’s an hour
earlier in Vail.” Lydia was examining the blade of one of her
daggers.
“We’re in a
different time zone?” I gaped. “Where are we?”
“At the Roving
Academy.” Adne had come to stand in the center of our small group.
“The heart and soul of all things Searcher.”
“The Roving
Academy?” I asked. I’d never heard of such a place. The information
I’d been given about the Searchers made it sound like they squatted
in hovels around the globe, trying to muster enough force for
guerrilla assaults.
“The Academy is our
greatest asset.” Anika smiled. “It stores our knowledge and
supplies us with food, crafts, and education. Most Searchers live
here, except for those on assignment.”
“It’s called the
Roving Academy because it moves out of necessity,” Monroe added.
“We don’t stay in any location for more than six months to avoid
detection. If the Keepers ever brought the war to us, it could mean
the end of our resistance.”
I hadn’t seen much
of this Academy, but I’d seen enough to know it was
huge.
“How can you move a
building?”
“Yeah.” Shay turned
in a slow circle, gazing at the high ceiling of the room. “I’ve
been wondering about that too.”
Adne winked at him.
“If you’re still interested in three months, I’ll give you a
front-row seat.”
“Never mind.” I
scowled. “Where are we now?”
“Iowa,” Anika
said.
I frowned. “Why
would you put it in Iowa?”
“Exactly.” Connor
gave me a mockingly solemn nod.
Adne sighed. “It
moves all over the world. Now it’s in Iowa. Next up is
Italy.”
A globe was spinning
in my mind’s eye. How had I gotten here?
“We don’t have time
for lessons right now.” Anika gestured to Adne. “That comes
later.”
“Good point. Adne,
just open the door,” Connor said. “I’ve never been good at
anticipation; it makes me blotch.”
“That might improve
your looks,” Silas muttered. He picked up a folded set of papers
from the pile. How he’d identified them amid the clutter was a
complete mystery.
“Here’s the next
dispatch for Grant.” He sent the stack sailing toward Connor like a
Frisbee. “Try not to lose it.”
Connor snatched the
letter out of the air. “Thanks.”
“What’s going on?” I
looked at Shay, making no sense of the strange
conversation.
“Ariadne is a portal
weaver,” Monroe said. “It’s the most important assignment a
Searcher can take on.”
The most important
assignment. I eyed Adne and could have sworn she wasn’t any older
than Ansel. “She’s leading our mission?”
“Not leading,”
Monroe said. “Just weaving.”
“Isn’t she a little
. . . young?” I had no idea what weaving was, but if it was vital
to our mission, I wanted someone with a little experience in charge
of it.
“Like I said
before.” Connor patted Adne on the head. “Our little honey exceeds
expectations.”
“Just let me work,”
Adne muttered, jerking away from Connor’s hand.
I started toward
Adne, wanting to make sure she was actually as exceptional as
everyone claimed.
Shay took my arm,
pulling me back several steps. “I think it’s better seen than
explained.”
Adne took the
slender metal spikes from her belt.
“What are those?” I
asked, tensing in case they were weapons after all.
She arched an
eyebrow at me, taking in my defensive stance. “Skeans—the Weavers’
tools. You’ll see what they do.”
She drew a breath as
she closed her eyes. Then she began to move. The skeans slashed the
air; each swift stroke left a blazing trail of light in its wake,
and a bell-like note hung around us. Adne’s body moved rapidly in a
mad dance. She dipped to the floor and flung her limbs toward the
ceiling, guiding the skeans in motions that resembled a crazed form
of rhythmic gymnastics. The gleaming threads that bloomed from her
skeans began to layer upon each other. The sounds that filled the
ear created a rippling chorus of chiming notes. Her arms wove
through the air as though the skeans were dipping in and out of a
giant invisible loom. The intricate pattern of light blazed
brighter until I had to pull my eyes away from the glare. Waves of
sound poured through the room until I thought I might drown in an
ocean of music and light.
All at once it
stopped.
“Look,” Shay
whispered.
I turned back to
Adne. She stood, breathless, in front of a giant shimmering
rectangle. It hung in the air, a tapestry of light suspended and
glowing. My breath caught in my throat as I moved closer. The
undulating rectangle held an image: the inside of a warehouse.
Stacks of crates filled the dimly lit room.
“Is that where we’re
going?” I murmured.
Adne nodded, still
trying to catch her breath.
“Nice weaving.”
Connor patted her on the shoulder.
“No problem.” She
smiled, wiping sweat from her brow.
“So what do we do
now?” I stared at the gleaming scene.
“It’s a door,” Adne
said. “You walk through it.”
I eyed the tall
portal of light. “Does it hurt?”
“It kind of
tickles,” Connor said, mocking solemnity.
Adne whacked him
with the flat side of one of her skeans.
“Ouch!” Connor
rubbed his arm.
“It’s fine, Cal,”
Shay said. “This is how I got to the Academy. I know it looks
crazy, but it’s safe.”
“Crazy?” Adne
protested.
“Crazy beautiful.”
Connor grinned at her. “I’ll go first.”
“Please,” I said,
not wanting to admit how much the shimmering doorway made all my
hairs stand on end.
Connor strode
confidently into the light-filled image. His body blurred for a
moment and then there he was, standing among the crates. He paused,
stretching his arms and yawning, and then suddenly dropped his
pants and mooned us.
“Oh God, Connor!”
Adne groaned. “Get through there and bite him, Shay.”
“I’m not coming,
remember?” Shay objected, but he laughed. “Even if I was, I
wouldn’t bite his ass.”
“Maybe Calla will.”
Adne grinned.
“Not likely,” I
muttered, though on a second glance I had to admit that Connor’s
ass wasn’t that bad to look at.
“Enough,” Anika
said, briefly embracing Lydia. “Be well.”
“Of course,” Lydia
said, rushing into the portal in time to smack Connor’s bare skin
with the flat of her dagger before he could stumble out of the
way.
Adne burst into
laughter.
“Go ahead, Calla,”
Monroe said. “Adne will be right behind you.”
“Wait.” Shay held on
to me. “What are we doing while they’re gone? Just sitting on our
hands until it’s over?”
“No.” Monroe came to
his side, gently drawing him away from me. “We have a task of our
own to accomplish.”
“We do?” Shay’s brow
furrowed.
“We’re dropping in
on some of the Academy instructors,” he said. “And you’re going to
convince them that it will be just fine when they have a pack of
young wolves joining their classes.”
So that’s what an
alliance meant. We wouldn’t just be fighting with them. We’d be
training with them, learning about their world. As much as that
idea was strange, it was also exciting.
Adne began to tap
her foot. “Come on, Lily. We try to open and close the doors
quickly. This isn’t window shopping.”
The nickname jarred
me enough to flash fangs at her. It was more than a little
satisfying when she took a step back.
I glanced at Shay,
who offered me a thin smile. “Good luck.”
Returning the smile
as best I could, I closed my eyes and stepped into the gleaming
haze.
Connor wasn’t
completely wrong about the sensations that flowed over me once I
touched the door of light, though moving through the portal didn’t
exactly tickle. For a moment my skin tingled, like I was caught in
a space full of static electricity. In the next moment, stale musty
air filled my lungs and Connor was laughing. Fortunately his pants
were on again.
“You with us,
Calla?” Lydia asked. “Trip’s over. This is where you get
off.”
Connor coughed. “I
could help you with that.”
I shook off my
bewilderment, glaring at him.
“Do you ever get
tired of hearing your own jokes?” Lydia shoved him toward the
door.
“Do you really need
to ask?” He grinned, batting his eyelashes at her.
She tried to give
him a stern look, but laughter bubbled up from her throat. “You’re
a disaster, boy, but I love you for it.”
“Of course you
do.”
“Stop preening,
Connor.” Adne had emerged from the portal. I turned around. I could
still see the flickering image of the room we’d left in the tall
rectangle behind her. “Everyone’s first time through a portal is
intimidating.”
“Not a bad way to
travel, though,” Connor said, rubbing his arms as if they were
still tingling. “Is it, wolf girl?”
“No, it’s not.” My
eyes fixed on the shimmering doorway. “But—”
“But what?” Adne’s
hands were on her hips. “You don’t approve of my
weaving?”
“It’s not that,” I
said, still examining the portal. “But don’t they make you
nervous?”
Adne sighed,
slashing her skeans across the portal in a giant X. The door vanished. “Look, Lily. This whole
exercise was to show you that it’s perfectly safe. I don’t know
what more I can do other than let you walk back and forth through
the door all night.”
“That isn’t what I
meant,” I said. “Aren’t you worried the Keepers will just open one
of these to find you? It’s perfect for a surprise attack. I mean,
that’s what we’re using it for, aren’t we?”
“Oh.” Adne nodded.
“I see.”
“See what?” I asked.
“You should be worried. That’s a pretty big flaw.”
“Yes, it would be,”
Adne continued, smiling wickedly. “If that were a problem, but it’s
not.”
“Why not?” I was
irritated by the smug expression on her face.
“Because our Weavers
are so special,” Connor said, sliding his arms around Adne’s waist
and kissing her on the cheek before she whirled around and shoved
him away.
“You are such a
jerk,” she said, but she couldn’t hide her laughter.
“I was trying to
give you a compliment,” Connor said, feigning an injured expression
and not quite dodging quickly enough when she grabbed for
him.
“Would someone
please tell me why this isn’t a problem?” I asked, put off by their
easy banter when I was still so tense.
“Keepers can’t
create portals,” Adne said simply, slipping out of her impromptu
wrestling match with Connor to face me again.
“Why not?” I asked,
frowning.
“It’s one of the few
benefits we have for not breaking the natural magic rules like they
do,” she said.
“I’m still not
following,” I said.
“Remember that whole
sin against nature issue Silas brought up earlier?” Connor grinned
at me.
“I do, not that it
made any sense.” I folded my arms across my chest. “And I’m
surprised you’re bringing it up now.”
He held his hands up
in surrender. “Only out of necessity. I think you’re gorgeous,
wolfie—no mutant features in sight as far as I can tell. Then
again, you do have all your clothes on.”
“Shut it, Connor.”
Lydia groaned.
“Yes, ma’am. Okay—so
the Keepers broke some big rules on the way to all that power they
have, creating Guardians included,” Connor said, pushing his hands
through his messy chestnut hair. “The truth of it is portals work
on natural principles. And if you go around offending the earth all
the time, like the Keepers do, you can’t ask it for
favors.”
“Huh?” I couldn’t
make sense of what he’d just said.
“Everything in this
world is connected—including all the places on the globe,” Adne
said. “Weavers use Old Magic to pull together the threads of that
connection, linking one site to another. That’s how we
travel.”
“But the Keepers—” I
began.
“Can’t pull the
threads to begin with,” Connor finished for me. “They have to
travel the old-fashioned way. Or the new technology way, I guess.
But no portals. They cannot weave. The earth won’t allow
it.”
I still wasn’t sure
I understood, but our conversation was interrupted by the door on
the other side of the room swinging open. Dropping to the ground, I
shifted, ready to attack the man who had a crossbow aimed at us.
Connor stepped in front of me before I could strike.
“Isaac, put that
down! What did we ever do to you?”
The man with the
crossbow grunted. “Oh, good. We were wondering when you’d get here.
Why did you open a door in the storage room?”
“Because if it were
Ethan with that crossbow, he’d have already shot her.” Adne pointed
to me. “I was being cautious.”
“Not a bad idea,”
Isaac said. “Though all he could do right now is spew cookies at
the wolf. He’s been stuffing his face ever since he got
here.”
“Calla, you should
try not to shift so much here,” Lydia said, moving to embrace
Isaac. “Where’s my best girl?”
I shifted back into
human form, swallowing a retort that hovered on my tongue. What did
they expect? I didn’t have a very good history with Searchers and
crossbows.
“She’s in the
kitchen with Ethan,” Isaac replied.
“How is Ethan?” Adne
asked. “Aside from being filled with cookies.”
Isaac looked at me.
“He’s coming around.”
“That’ll do,” Connor
said, taking my hand and pulling me to the door. “Isaac, meet
Calla. She’s the alpha who’ll be leading our fabulous new Guardian
revolt.”
I’m doing what? The ramifications of this new plan
came crashing down onto me like a rock slide.
“Is that all?” Isaac
grinned. “Nice to meet you, rabble-rouser.”
I shook his hand,
giving Connor an unfriendly sidelong glance.
He slapped me on the
shoulder. “Just making sure your reputation precedes
you.”
“Thanks.”
We followed Isaac,
whose wealth of long, minuscule braids swung from a ponytail at the
nape of his neck as he sauntered into a large room that was empty
except for the mats on the floor and weapons hanging from the
walls.
Seeing my eyes
wander, Lydia smiled at me. “Training room.”
Isaac led us through
another door, where we were greeted by a roaring fire, the smell of
fresh coffee, and two faces. One smiling, the other
scowling.
“Hey, beautiful.”
Lydia opened her arms to a woman who looked about the same
age—thirty-five give or take a couple of years—and whose
chin-length crop of springing curls was reminiscent of Bryn’s,
except for their blue-black hue.
“It’s my lucky day,”
the woman said, kissing her.
“Can it be my lucky
day too?” Connor asked, eyeing the liplocked pair.
“Don’t hit on my
girlfriend, Connor.” Lydia laughed, pulling the other woman into a
fierce hug.
“I wasn’t hitting on
her,” Connor objected. “I gave her a compliment. You think I’d
poach your territory? You forget that I patrol with you. I don’t
want to be at the wrong end of your daggers.”
“Smart man,” Lydia
said, then turned the other woman to face me. “Tess, this is Calla.
She’s the slumbering wolf we’ve been hoping would
stir.”
“And stir she has.”
Tess came to me immediately, offering both her hands. “It’s an
honor to meet you.”
Again that word . .
. honor. It threw me.
“Thanks.” I took
both her hands; they were soft and warm. When she smiled, it lit up
her pale blue eyes, full of sincere kindness. I liked her
instantly.
“Do we have time for
a cup of coffee?” Isaac asked, holding up a pot. “Or are we jumping
straight to blood and guts?”
I stared at him,
startled by the questions that pitted coffee against
gore.
“You won’t be
jumping anywhere,” Lydia said, pulling Tess back into an embrace.
“Reapers are to hold down the fort. Just Strikers and the wolf out
on this run.”
“And me,” Adne
said.
“I heard you’re the
new Weaver, Ariadne.” Isaac was pouring himself a cup of coffee.
“Welcome aboard.”
“Adne,” she replied.
“It’s just Adne.”
“Still rebelling
against your father, Ariadne?” Tess asked as she leaned against
Lydia. “We’ve talked about that.”
“You’ve talked about
that,” Adne said, pushing past them to grab a seat at the kitchen
table next to Ethan, who was staring at his coffee and a plate full
of cookie crumbs. “And would you two get a room? You know not
everyone here has stumbled across true love and yet you two rub our
noses in it every chance you get.”
“Watch it,” Lydia
said. “We don’t get that many chances and you know it. We’re lucky
to share an hour in the same time zone on most days.”
“Besides, you’re
sixteen, Ariadne.” Tess fixed her with a stern gaze. “You haven’t
had time to stumble across love yet.”
“Sure she has.”
Connor slid into the chair on the other side of Adne, throwing his
arm around her shoulders. “She just doesn’t appreciate it
yet.”
Adne groaned and
dropped her forehead onto the table. “I’ll marry the first person
who gets me a cup of coffee, I don’t care who it is.”
“Throw me a mug,
Isaac!” Connor half rose.
“Oh, please,” Adne
mumbled onto the tabletop.
“Are you kidding?”
Connor said. “A cup of coffee instead of a ring? That’s the kind of
proposal I’m ready for.”
I traced the cool
metal band circling my finger. When I caught Adne watching me, I
hid my hands under the table.
“And all you can
afford,” Isaac added.
“Well, that too.”
Connor laughed.
“I still don’t have
any coffee,” Adne said. “Even with my generous offer.”
“Don’t give up that
easily, sweetheart.” Isaac smiled, bringing Adne a steaming mug.
“Coffee, Calla?”
“Uh, I—” I
hesitated, still not understanding this bizarre chatter in the face
of impending battle. “Shouldn’t we focus on the attack? Anika said
we only have a brief window for this to work.”
The room went
silent. I held my breath, clearly having said the wrong
thing.
Tess took pity on
me. “Sweetie, there’s always time for a cup of coffee.” She took my
arm, settling me in the chair next to Connor.
“Time for anything
good when you’re staring death in the face,” Connor
added.
“Amen,” Ethan
muttered from the corner.
I gazed at their
thin, bleak smiles and my confusion evaporated. I thought about
their lives. About what they had to face. Keepers. Guardians.
Wraiths. The stuff of nightmares.
Survival. That’s
what this was about. The Searchers were warriors, like Guardians.
They looked at every fight like it could be their last. All of
this—from oddly timed coffee to Connor’s inappropriate
jokes—fortified their defenses. Only this wasn’t body armor. It was
a mental bulwark. A way to save their spirits from
despair.
As strange as it
was, I could get on board with this strategy. Especially if it
involved coffee, though I wondered if the crankiness of not getting
any might give me the winning edge in a fight.
“What is this
place?” I asked, trying to piece together the storage area, the
training room, and now the kitchen.
“We have outposts
adjacent to the major Keeper settlements across the globe. They
have two main purposes: to keep us connected to our contacts in the
human world and to use as staging areas for strikes against Keeper
targets.”
“It’s home sweet
Purgatory.” Isaac sighed.
“It may be
Purgatory.” Lydia laughed. “But the coffee is damn
good.”
“Purgatory?” I
frowned, then smiled when Isaac handed me a mug full of swirling
liquid, black as tar.
“You know, it’s the
place you get stuck between heaven and hell,” Connor said. “Heaven
being the Academy and hell . . .”
“Is Vail.” Ethan
pushed his chair back and went to the far side of the room,
apparently no longer able to tolerate my presence.
Tess shook her head
at him, but he ignored her, drinking his coffee in solitary
silence.
I decided that
giving Ethan a wide berth was probably my best bet. Whether he
trusted or liked me didn’t matter. I hadn’t come here to make
friends. I was here to save my pack.
I turned back to
Connor. “So where are we exactly?”
When I asked the
question, I had to hide my own shudder; if we were close to the
Keepers, how safe could we be?
Lydia answered as
she and Tess joined us at the table. “We’re in a warehouse in
Denver. Weavers open doors from here to our strike sites. Strikers
come and go according to their assignments.”
“And we Reapers
sojourn alone,” Isaac said, looking mournful.
Tess clucked her
tongue. “Are you saying I’m not good company?”
“Not if it means
you’ll stop cooking for me.” Isaac flashed a grin at
her.
“He’s got you
cooking for him now?” Lydia asked. “You’re much too
nice.”
“Don’t ruin my
arrangement, woman!” Isaac protested. “Plus I do the
dishes.”
“He does,” Tess
said.
I took a sip of my
coffee, trying to keep up. “What are Reapers?”
“There aren’t many
Searchers left in the world.” Lydia’s voice had a hard edge. “Most
stay at the Academy teaching or training; they only head out for
missions on an as-needed basis. But those who are still fighting
the good fight day-to-day live in outposts like this one. Our teams
always have the same distribution of members: groups of ten,
specific assignments for each member. The Reapers gather supplies
and run valuable goods through the black market, maintaining our
cash flow in contemporary world currencies.”
“Black market?” I
frowned, a little nervous.
“Don’t worry, Calla,
we don’t deal in nasties, like human organs.” Tess giggled, shaking
her head. When I laughed uneasily, she hurried on. “It’s mostly art
and antiquities. Stuff we know how to find that other people
wouldn’t have access to.”
“She’s trying to
tell you that Reapers are smugglers,” Connor said. “But nice
ones.”
“Connor, you know we
trained long and hard for this work,” Isaac said.
“Longer than you,”
Tess added.
“How long?” I
asked.
“Standard training
for Searchers is two years of general skills and another year of
specialization for assignment,” she said. “Reapers do an additional
two years.”
“To learn how to
smuggle?”
“Look what you’ve
done now, Connor.” Tess shook her head. “No, that’s not how it
works. Reapers know art history, language, and classics backwards
and forwards. That’s in addition to their combat training. Reaper
work is almost more dangerous than the Strikers’
duties.”
I cleared my throat
nervously. “And the Strikers are?”
“The Strikers are
your counterparts,” Lydia said. “They’re trained to be the first
line of offense against the Keepers. They execute hits against
designated enemy targets. But that mostly means they kill
Guardians.”
“Great,” I said,
feeling my canines sharpen at her words. “And Weavers open doors.
And Monroe, he’s your—”
I tried to remember
what they’d called him.
“Guide,” Tess
offered. “He’s our Guide.”
Ethan came forward,
slamming his empty cup on the table. “Now that preschool is over,
can we get moving? Anika had a point. We only have a few hours of
daylight left.”
“Ethan!” Tess was on
her feet.
“Easy, girl.” Connor
stood up too. “He’s right. We need to head out.”
Lydia looked at me.
“I’m sure you still have lots of questions. I’m sorry we can’t
answer them all right now.”
“Don’t worry about
it.” I rose from my chair, muscles humming. The caffeine buzz and
the thought of getting into the forest had me itching to
run.
It was time for this
alpha to find her pack.