Blue Ruin (The Phoenix Series Book 1) Page 18

  Relax, she thought to him. It’s me. Meet Kyle at the back gate.

  Sayer blocked him from view.

  Even in six-inch stilettos, Maura’s height never compared to his. He towered at six-foot-five and had a build that could crush someone with a pat on the back.

  “No, not a Leroux. Just a Vessel.” She looked away from his cold eyes.

  Jeremy pushed through the developing crowd.

  Sayer turned to him with the same piercing look. “She was your partner before, Miller.”

  Jeremy paled, placed a hand to the side of his head and stumbled back. “I–I didn’t know,” he said, falling into one of the chairs.

  “Bring Ms. Bennett here,” Sayer demanded.

  Fuck.

  One of the men in a black trench coat sprinted down the aisle. He latched onto Jessica and pulled her shaking body into their circle at the back. She looked between the men. Stuttered silent words fell from her quivering lips. She dug her heels into the carpet, slipping and dragging behind her.

  Murmurs broke out amongst the students. Some felt brave enough to inch into the aisle. A few others shouted in protest. Officials on stage told them to calm down. They released a weak spell over the auditorium to keep the students in their seats.

  “Is this Vera Hart?” Sayer asked Jessica.

  She nodded, her hands to her chest. “Y–yes.”

  “Was she a student of yours?”

  “For a few days now. Only a few days. I had–”

  Sayer held up a hand to silence her. “Did you accept her into your school?”

  “Aegis brought her.” Her words strung together. “They told me her family was murdered and that–and that she needed protection.” Jessica’s eyes dilated. Her lips trembled. She looked to Sayer, who faced away from her.

  Two men on either side took her by each of her arms.

  “They dumped her on me!”

  Sayer gloved his hands and retrieved a violet, translucent sword from the invisible holster at his hip.

  “You are well aware, Ms. Bennett, that housing Abysmals is illegal.” He spun to her, the blade illuminating within his tight grasp. “And punishable by death.”

  Students screamed. Charms exploded against the thin barrier holding them in their seats. A bright blast from the middle rows shattered the turquoise dome that trapped them. Maura stumbled back from the explosion. Students rushed forward, spells in their hands. Charms ricocheted off the back wall. Officials took cover beneath Shields.

  Maura stepped away as Sayer released an Impact spell that sent the students soaring across the auditorium. They collided midair with one another and crashed into the walls.

  Liam formed a Shield around them, and officials struggled to regain control. Agents destroyed Liam’s Shield and replaced it with their own. Students collapsed like puppets where they stood from the pressure of the restraining spells above them. Liam knelt beside a Mystic, blood pouring from the student’s side.

  They’re just kids, Maura thought. She stepped forward to help and then back, remembering who she was.

  Another spell and their words were muffled.

  “I didn’t know! I didn’t know!” Jessica screamed.

  Her cries irritated the conscience that surrounded the ever growing Void. Maura hadn’t meant for this to happen.

  “Jessica Bennett, you are condemned before officials of the high courts for housing known evils. It is by my duty that I condemn you to death.” Sayer raised the sword over his head.

  Jessica quivered in the arms of her captors, whose grips only tightened. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “I didn’t know! I didn’t know!” She kicked at the first captor. His knees buckled, and he hit the ground. Jessica fell away from him and scrabbled to her feet. The second man hooked her around the elbow and tackled her to the ground.

  “Help me!” she screamed.

  The man crushed her beneath his weight. She heaved through the cries. The agent picked her up by her hair. Another official slapped anti-magic handcuffs onto her wrists and helped drag her back to Sayer.

  Students turned away, hid their faces in one another’s shoulders and cried. Maura caught the eyes of one boy. His eyes were wide, pleading. The question – why? – whirled in his ocean blue gaze. She swallowed hard and turned away.

  A guard, no taller than Jessica, yanked Jessica’s head back to expose the line of her neck.

  “No!” Jessica thrashed in their hold.

  Officials stunned her into submission with a spell.

  “I can tell you who did this. I can tell you. Please!” Her words strung together so quickly it sounded like one long cry.

  Sayer placed the blade at her neck.

  “Maxine Robins!” Jessica begged. “She brought her here. I can tell you where she is, just please let me go!”

  Sayer raised the sword high.

  No matter how much Maura wanted to, she couldn’t look away. Heidi wouldn’t.

  “She–” Jessica’s words were cut short from the sound of silver meeting flesh.

  A momentary blink relieved Maura of Jessica’s last breath. Wet flesh thudded on the ground, bringing stinging silence along with it.

  High-pitched screams broke out around them.

  “When did you get the authority to condemn and execute, Sayer?” Maura asked.

  He sheathed his blood-streaked sword with a click. “When evil began running around my world like cockroaches, Heidi,” he said. “Contact Aegis. I want Maxine Robins.”

  Maura pressed his mind to find that he didn’t quite care for Heidi. He merely put up with her existence because Adrian owned her and him. It wasn’t unless Heidi charmed him with her Song that he enjoyed her after hours.

  “Leroux isn’t here,” another guard said.

  Sayer looked over everyone in the circle and climbed over the bodies with one step. “We’re done here.”

  A few filed out after him. Others stayed to take the bodies. One man came from behind and tapped Maura on the shoulder before kneeling at the bodies. “I’ll take care of this,” he said, winking.

  She helped Kyle lug their beheaded principal into an awaiting van. They placed her on a white blanket, covered her, and situated her in a way that kept her from rolling around. Maura punched the side of the van on the way out.

  “I need to grab a few things. Load the last body,” she said, jogging up the pebbled path to the front door.

  She took the stairs two at a time and stopped in an empty side corridor. Staring into the endless hallway, surrounded by only silence, everything felt like it was getting smaller, the air thicker. She struggled to take a breath, her chest constricted with guilt.

  She punched a column. Statues became easy kicking targets until pulses of loose magic shattered their marble stands. She turned to the banister and beat the wooden spokes into hundreds of pieces. She slammed her open fists against the wood-paneled walls, keeping a scream locked behind clenched teeth.

  With a cleansing breath, she slumped forward against the cool wall. This is the life I have to live. Not the one I chose to live.

  After several calming seconds, she jogged down the stairs.

  Outside, the last of the officials peeled off the driveway.

  Maura waited for the last van to exit through the large gates before approaching Kyle.

  “What's the plan?” he asked.

  “Let's find Liam.”

  Kyle hopped into the driver’s seat of the van. Maura climbed in, slammed the door, and sealed the heavy silence with them. They sat quietly for what felt like hours.

  All she could think about was what she’d learned from pressing Heidi’s mind. Her thoughts were all she heard in the ringing silence.

  Adrian will find me. Adrian will find me. Adrian will find me.

  Kyle drove to the back gate where a silhouette stood against the sun. He pressed on the brakes and stopped beside Liam.

  Maura rolled down her window as Liam approached.

  “Before you ask what
the fuck I was thinking,” she said, holding up a hand. “I need your help.”

  “Okay,” Liam said, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

  “I need you to get us into Erewhon.”

  “What?” Kyle and Liam said in unison.

  “Sayer ordered Collectors to find the agent who hid me in Mystic Academy.”

  “Collectors here are looking for you,” he said. “Collectors there will be hunting you.”

  “Liam’s right,” Kyle said.

  She sighed. “Her name is Maxine Robins, an Aegis agent. She knew I was an Abysmal, and let me live. Sayer will kill her if he finds her.”

  “If,” Liam mused, the shadow of a smile dancing on his lips.

  Maura jumped from the car. “We don't have much time. Kyle,” she turned to him. “Stay close to the school. We’ll deal with the bodies when I come back.” She faced Liam. “So, who's driving?”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Fired

  Max sat in her office, the radio in her hands.

  “Two bodies,” a voice cracked over the static.

  “Copy that,” the dispatcher said.

  “We have positive identification.”

  Max held her breath.

  “Confirmed Vessel, Beth Hollings. Alias, Vera Hart.”

  Max slammed the radio on her desk. Goddamn. The voice chirped again. “En route to Connecticut headquarters. ETA, twenty minutes.”

  She breathed a short sigh of relief. Twenty minutes to Connecticut. An hour there. Another hour flying back to Erewhon. That gave her two hours to leave.

  She picked up the phone and dialed home. One ring. Two rings. “Come on, come on.” Three rings. Four rings. “Pick up the goddamn phone.”

  “Hello?” Paul’s breathless voice interrupted the fifth ring.

  “It’s me, babe.”

  “Is everything alright? You never call from work.”

  Max never called from the office. Never wore a ring. Never spoke of her husband of ten years, or three-year-old daughter, Emily. Her life outside of work was valuable, precious and came with a price. Sayer, Dimitri, the rats in the department, and the scum Collectors scraped off the streets didn’t need to know what she had – what they could have to gain leverage over her.

  “Pack our things,” she said. “There’s a safe–”

  “Honey, what are you–”

  “Paul, just listen to me.” She cupped her hands over the phone, her eyes locked on the glass window overlooking the hallway. Agents ran down either end. Papers flew from their arms. Seniors shouted at interns. Faces were red. Eyes went wide. Sweat dampened everyone’s forehead. Shit. Max raised the volume on the radio. Quiet. Her hands trembled.

  “Honey?”

  “There’s a safe in the cellar,” she said. “Put everything into a dimensional bag. Empty the bank account and find a flight to the Mundane. Anywhere but Connecticut,” her voice wavered. She’d given ten years to the department. Ten years to her husband. Ten years to making their little house in the valley a home. One decision to give another new life ended hers.

  “Maxine, what’s going on?”

  “I’ll explain at the airport in an hour.” Her stomach sank into her pelvis as the trickle of agents stopped. The hall quieted. “Don’t forget Emily’s stuffed rabbit. I love you.” She hung up, not waiting to hear his I love you. She’d hear it in person.

  Max left her desk and stepped into the hall. Desolate. The section of cubicles, the glass offices, the lounge, all empty. Strewn papers littered the blue-carpeted floor. Silence swept through the department like Death’s whisper.

  An intern fled a corner office with a bundle of records in her arms. Max followed her into the east conference room. The sound of dozens of shredders screeched from beyond the closed doors. Max slipped in, undetected by those who hunched over ribbons of papers. Shearing spells, Annihilation spells, and fire spells brightened the room with reds, yellows, and orange.

  Carla, an Aegis agent who transferred from the Mundane, shoved files into Max’s arms. “Burn them.”

  Max set the papers on the oval desk. “What are you doing?”

  “Sayer is coming. Didn’t you hear?” Carla shouted at an intern to move faster. “They found a Vessel in one of the refugee homes. He wants to know whose case it was.”

  “Mine.”

  Carla turned, ran her gaze up and down Max’s body. “Then you better get that file and destroy it.”

  “Everything is in the encrypted database.”

  “I know,” Carla huffed, dropping a stack to the floor. “We have someone in the electronics department taking care of that. Here,” she slid a massive pile down the table. “You aren’t the only one who can’t kill an Abysmal.”

  Max flipped open the charts. Vampire. Vessel. Vessel. Vampire. Siren. Vessel. “What is this?”

  Carla ran her fingers over the black and white profile pictures on each page. “My cases. We see Abysmals in the Mundane mostly. They need help just like us. Besides,” she wiped her brow of sweat. “Adrian wants them.”

  Max smiled. I’m not the only one. She closed the files and conjured a vast Flare. The yellow flames chewed at the corners of the papers. A strong wind pushed the fire further and engulfed the folders.

  “Get rid of everything,” she said to Carla. “I’ll stall Sayer when he arrives.”

  Carla nodded and shouted to the other agents.

  Max ran from the conference room into her office. Beth Hollings’ case sat open on her desk. Two Defense Force agents fingered through its contents. They turned at the sound of her footsteps. She recognized them from television, always standing on either side of Sayer while he gave a press conference.

  “Maxine Robins,” Chad said, waving the paperwork. “Commissioner Sayer isn’t too happy with you.”

  Max gulped, held her chin high, and stepped into the office. The door slammed closed with a spell from Val. The locks engaging sent a prickle of fear down her spine. “I was expecting a visit from Sayer.”

  Chad moved from behind the desk. “He has matters to attend to in Connecticut. He didn’t want your offices destroying evidence before he arrived.”

  “You’re here to arrest me then.”

  They chuckled. Another step forward. “Stealing is jail time,” Val said. “Forgery is jail time. Battery is jail time.”

  “Associating with Abysmals is punishable by death,” Chad said.

  Max’s hands turned cold. “Only Dimitri can execute.”

  Chad retrieved a gun from his holster. Val did the same. In unison, they checked their magazines and loaded their guns. Click. Click. The bullets entering the chamber echoed in the small room. Her heart galloped into her throat. She couldn’t run – Carla depended on her to stall. Her gun was holstered on her ankle – they’d shoot her before she’d reach it. Goddamnit.

  “With all that’s happening in the Mundane – Adrian, Mystics mingling with the wrong kind – Dimitri has granted us the right to execute,” Chad said, kicking her in the knees. Max fell to the ground on all fours, her knees throbbing.

  The men towered over her, their feet beside her hands. Her fingers reacted before the thought solidified in her mind. She shot off Paralyzing spells at their feet and grabbed her pistol at her ankle. She fired at the men’s legs, and their guns dropped with them. Max rose. The men screamed, nursing their broken bones, as she aimed and pulled the trigger.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Keep

  Maura and Liam stepped out of the car. They stood deep in the woods on a dirt path that ended around a curve. The sun blazed through the tree lines, sending red rays and dark shadows into their eyes.

  Maura turned from the light to where Liam stood beside a boulder that had faded marks along its gray surface. She drew her fingers along the etches, a navy blue aura emerging. The color deepened and brightened the harder she pressed until its light competed with the sun’s.

  “I needed a way to remember where to open the portal.” Liam tapped the boulder. “I'd hate to wind up fallin
g into the ocean.”

  Maura smirked and stepped away.

  Liam outstretched his arms, magic swirling in his open palms like miniature thunderstorms. He released the spells against the boulder.

  A gush of wind caused Maura to step back. She braced her leg to help counter the strong wind.

  The blinding light grew brighter. The center of the light glowed pure white, the edges a baby blue. Cracks formed on the boulder, spreading out like a crack in a window. Rock fragments exploded from the surface. Maura raised her arms over her head, grimacing as as pebbles rained down on her.

  The light transitioned into pure white. It surrounded them and blinded the forest from their sight. The scent of a damp meadow, very different from the strong smell of mint and floral of the forest, wafted out from the slit between worlds.

  With one last surge of energy, the portal into Erewhon opened and the light died.

  Liam held the portal in place with a weak spell and motioned for Maura to step through.

  She slipped into Erewhon where morning fog dissipated in the rising sun. Flowers emerged from their beds and stretched their leaves in the yellow rays. Blue sky peeked through wispy white clouds that cleared with each passing wind. She breathed in the tranquility.

  Liam followed and sealed the portal behind him.

  “Where's The Keep from here?” she asked.

  “We have to work on your appearance.” He pointed to her signature red hair and black scars.

  “Every other Illusion I have is supposed to be dead. Beth Hollings, Vera Hart, Heidi.” She counted on her fingers. “Agents are already looking for me here. The last thing I need is for them to catch me using an Illusion spell.”

  “Heidi?”

  “She's too well known. I need an unfamiliar face, something that'll blend in.”

  “Then a disguise.” He gestured toward her bag with his chin. “What do you have in there?”

  She dug through the contents. Empty potion vials, loose pieces of paper, fragments of her broken cell phone. A rounded bottle with several drops of an Illusion potion rolled onto the ground. The silver liquid shimmered in the sunlight, glowing along the glass.