Storm Secrets, page 4
part #4 of Scarlet Jones Series
Maybe it was all of it together that took my strength from me, and since I didn’t have any to begin with, by the time he walked out, I fell against the desk, afraid of hitting the ground when my legs gave up on me. It didn’t take long for others to come storming in when they saw him leave. They all looked at me like they expected to see me bleeding, even dead. They were confused, with no idea what to make of the situation.
Ax strode in last, the look on his face furious. The bag in his hand looked empty. He must have finished setting up the spell stones around the monastery for protection. His eyes moved over my body a few times before they settled on mine.
“What the hell happened? What’s the ECU doing here?”
I let go of the breath I was holding and continued to hope I wouldn’t fall unconscious. I’d been tested, was at my limits, and there was nothing I wanted more than to lie down on that desk and sleep, but this needed to be done tonight.
“You better get the others. There’s something I need to tell you,” I whispered but everyone was close enough to me to hear. A few from the crowd made for the door, running.
Ax put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you okay?” His colorless eyes were wide with fear.
“I’m fine. Are the stones in place?”
He nodded. “We should be good.” But it would be stupid to believe that. We weren’t safe, not even close to it. People like Jane Dunham could break all our defenses at any second. “What happened? Who was that guy you spoke to?”
I flinched. “My father.”
Surprised, Ax turned his head to look at the doors as if he expected my father to walk back in the chapel. Fortunately he was gone. Long gone. “Is something going on?” Ax asked in a whisper.
“Yes. Something’s going on.”
As if on cue, Sienna with Ezra by her side, and Luca with his arm over Fallon’s shoulders, came in followed by Grover. They were completely dry—the only ones in the room. I couldn’t even notice the cold anymore. My limbs had gone numb; my wet clothes now my new normal.
The sight of Ezra, his hand tightly around Sienna’s, made my stomach turn. The kid had come to us, to me, hoping we’d be able to protect him. Now, he probably saw for himself that we couldn’t. I looked into his dark eyes, scared to leave him behind, terrified of what might happen until I could come back to get him, to take him to the one place where nobody could find him…
“You wanna tell us now what’s happening?” Ax said, impatiently tapping his foot to the floor.
With a deep breath, I chased away my fears—or tried to—and smiled at Ezra. With a wave of my hand, I invited him to come sit on the desk with me, and he did so gladly. He trusted me, that much was obvious, and I already knew I’d lay down my life to save that trust. To never let it break, or even crack.
“My father was here to talk to me,” I started, my voice weak but my words clear. “He was sent here by the ECU. Looks like they have a proposition for us.”
The whispers began instantly. Some smiled, others looked even more scared than before, but most had no idea what to make of my words. Luca was trying to stand on his own, shaking his head at me as if he wanted me to talk fast, so I indulged him.
“They are willing to start talking to us about our rights, about our place in the world.” My smile was tired, but it was there. My eyes were only half open, but I saw their surprise, their shock, their…
Wait, why wasn’t everyone happy? Ax, Fallon, Grover, even Luca…
“At what cost?” asked Ax, his hands on his hips as he looked down at me, even angrier than before.
A gulp later, I met his eyes. “I help them hunt down demons.”
There were no whispers this time. “Help them, how?” Ax demanded.
No use in going in rounds now, so… “I’m going to work for them. Tomorrow morning, I’m leaving for the headquarters. They’re going to give me an official statement for—”
“Have you lost your damn mind?!” Grover shouted, making me jump.
“Please tell me you’re kidding,” Ax whispered.
“C’mon, Scarlet. You’re not stupid, are you?” said Fallon.
“No, no, I—” But they wouldn’t let me finish.
“Absolutely out of the question!” Ax said. “Working for the ECU? I mean…” He couldn’t even finish his sentence.
“This only shows us one thing: that they’re desperate,” Fallon said. “And if they’re desperate, we have ‘em right where we want ‘em.”
“It’s bad enough that they’re making us fight for what is rightfully ours,” said Grover. “Now they want you, too?”
“You can’t be thinking about this seriously, can you?” Ax whispered. “Scarlet, look at me.”
I refused and kept my eyes on the floor instead. “It’s the best, fastest chance we have.”
“Fuck best. Fuck fastest. This is ridiculous!”
“Ax, think about it for a second,” I pleaded, but he threw his hands in the air and turned his back on me. The others continued to make me feel even worse, like I really was stupid for having thought about it. For having agreed to it.
But couldn’t they see that this was the only way to make sure we had one less enemy on our list?
“It’s clearly a trap,” someone from the crowd said. “They want you away from here so that when the next horde of demons comes in, we’re all dead.”
“They’ll just do the job for the ECU, and those assholes won’t even have to bother with us anymore,” said Fallon.
“I bet they even have the demons on call, just waiting for you to leave.”
“Guys, stop,” I whispered, but they didn’t care.
“This is all just a game to them! A joke!” Grover shouted, making me jump again.
“They want to get rid of us, that’s for sure, but we will not give them the pleasure,” Fallon spit angrily.
Ax had stepped away from the desk and had gone to the benches on my right, staring at the floor in silence. It killed me to see him like that, his face completely emotionless.
“Stop for a second!” I shouted, and my voice echoed in the high ceiling. It cost me to gather all that energy, but it was worth it. Everybody stopped speaking and whispering, all their eyes turned to me. I mean, I knew they’d be pissed off, but this? None of them was thinking clearly, and I understood. We’d just buried twenty-one people in the garden. We were all afraid, but we needed this. We needed this more than the ECU needed me.
“I understand that you think this is stupid, and it really might be stupid, but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt and we’ve got to keep playing. For starters, I don’t think that the ECU wants me gone just so the demons can come in here and take you all out. If they wanted that, they could have killed me pretty easily a couple weeks ago when we came back from our search for Ezra. They had me, Fallon, Ax, and Grover inside their building, completely defenseless. They could have just gotten rid of us then.”
“That was different,” Fallon whispered, but her heart wasn’t into it because she knew her words were a lie. It wasn’t different.
“Twenty-one people died this morning, guys. Twenty-one. If they hadn’t been stuck in here, who knows? You’re all here when you could be living your lives. You could have jobs and homes and nobody hunting you down to kill you because of your nature. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to be free?”
“But you brought us here. Is this why, so you could leave us?” Franky said from the crowd, his dark eyes full of judgment. His words cut all the way to my heart.
“No, that’s not why we brought you here. We came here together so we could stand against the world until they gave us a chance. Now, they have. When I leave tomorrow, I’m going to ask for one more thing for my service: a dozen ECU soldiers to keep watch around the monastery for demons. They’re going to agree because they’ll have no other choice. For that, if you ask me, the price is a very small price to pay.”
I’d spend my whole life working for the ECU if needed, just as long as all of them remained free. It was my fault that all those people were killed today. I’d been the one to bring them all together, an easy prey for those magic-sucking assholes. It was only fair that I be the one to make this right.
“You have no idea what you’re up against,” someone from the crowd said, and when the others turned to look, I saw Eight’s face. He was the son of a coven leader; his girlfriend was killed by the ECU for being a Storm. He was probably the closest person to the ECU in the chapel. “They’re good at what they do, Scarlet. They’ll break you. Believe you me, they’ll chew you so hard, when they spit you out, there will be nothing more left of you.”
The silence that followed suffocated me. He sounded so sincere, it was hard to ignore the truth in his words. It was hard to fool myself into thinking that he was just exaggerating it.
“I know what I’m signing up for here.” And if I didn’t, I had no doubt I’d find out very soon. “But the alternative just isn’t acceptable. Tomorrow morning, I will have a written statement from all the leaders. With it, you will all be free to do what you want. Nobody is going to hunt you down. You won’t need to hide.”
“Except from the demons,” Fallon reminded me.
“Except from the demons,” I repeated. “But it will be easier to hide among others. It will be easier to wait for new spells from Ezra and to wait for me to figure out how this damn thing works.”
I eyed the dragon angrily. If I could figure out how to make it work and show the others, everyone would be safer.
“And I’ll be hunting them down, together with the ECU. They have the means to find and isolate those creatures. The more of them I kill, the safer we will all be.”
Maybe they were afraid because they’d never had a chance against the demons, but I did. I’d tasted the feeling of killing them, and I’d long sworn to myself to never rest until every single one of them was dead.
“So…what, you leave and then we’ll have to go, too?” a girl from the crowd said. I couldn’t even remember her name, and it was getting harder to keep my eyes open after each blink. “Where are we going to go?”
“Wherever you want to. You can stay here, or you can leave. You can leave and come back—whichever way suits you. Like I said, I will have soldiers here to guard you at all times. That way, I’ll be the first to hear if something even moves the wrong way in the woods surrounding this place.”
“This is why we’re here,” Sienna suddenly spoke, calling all our eyes to her. She stood with her head raised, arms crossed in front of her chest, that fierce look in her eyes—the same one she had the night of the Carnival. “We came here to win our freedom. To be honest, I thought it was going to take us years, but with Scarlet’s sacrifice, we could have our lives back sooner.”
“Death has a way to get to you,” Luca said next. “We’re all scared. It’s foolish not to be, but this is an opportunity we might never get again.” He met my eyes and gave me half a smile, a smile of support. “I’ll be the first one to thank you.”
“Thank her?” Fallon exploded. “Without her, we’re dead!”
“You’re not,” I promised. “I’ll be barely half an hour away, and more importantly, I’ll be hunting demons down. I’ll start with the ones closest to this place and move on from there.”
It was the best way to keep them safe. I had the dragon, yes, but what if they kept coming and coming? I couldn’t stand on my feet forever, and sooner or later, they were going to figure that out. The dragon needed energy to function, just like me.
“But it’s a trap,” said Grover. “They’ll just kill you now or when they don’t need you anymore. Screw their official statement. They’re going to tear it up the second it’s no longer convenient for them.”
“This is just the beginning,” said Sienna. “With our freedom, we can do more. We can get involved in the society, establish our presence so that even if they want to change the rules, it will be harder. I know it might not mean much to you tonight, but I agree with Scarlet. This is the only way we can have one less enemy to watch out for.”
“Me, too,” said Luca with a nod, but nobody else spoke. Ax stood up suddenly and made his way to the doors without a look back. My eyes closed involuntarily, and it took me a while to open them again. When I did, I looked down at Ezra, who’d kept silent the whole time.
“What do you think, buddy?” I asked him.
“I’m too young to know what to think about things like this,” he said with a shrug. “But if you think it’s the best way…”
“I do,” I reassured him. “And you’ll be safe, okay? I will come back for you as soon as I can, and I’m going to take you to a place I think you’ll like.”
Surprised, he looked up at me. “Where?”
“To see your sister again.”
Jeanne Dubois had the safest house on the planet for Ezra right now. The spell around her house was going to provide the perfect protection until Ezra decided what to do next—if he wanted to remain hidden or tell the covens that he and his family were alive. It was his choice, and I’d promised not to take it away from him.
I just hoped that Jeanne Dubois agreed to spend even more time in that house, especially after I told her that Ezra had come up with a spell to break the one keeping her trapped. It was going to be a very difficult conversation.
“So what now?” asked Fallon, looking around the chapel.
“Now, we keep guard, and in the morning, when I leave, I’ll send back the statement. You can make copies, make it public online, do whatever you want. After that, you can choose to stay here or leave. This place will remain open for every Storm witch in the country. We’ll make this our headquarters, the place where we start our coven.”
“Our coven?” Cade said, as if he didn’t know the meaning of the word.
“Yes, our coven.” Something I hadn’t dared to even dream about until now. “We will be just the same as all the other witches.”
“Except the other witches won’t have demons coming after them,” said Grover and kicked a bench with all his strength.
“Grover, please,” I whispered, but he didn’t care.
“This is bullshit. We came here to stand together. Now, the first sign of them trying to break us apart and you cave. Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe all of this was a mistake. Fuck it,” he said and turned around, running for the doors.
He probably had no idea how many times I’d thought the same thing. How many times I’d cursed myself for giving all these people hope. But for once, I could see the end to this injustice. I could see us all being part of the world in the same, unique way. Freedom would be ours as long as I worked for the ECU to hunt down demons. A perfectly acceptable price.
It would be for all of them, too, just as soon as they got used to the idea. Just until they saw what it meant to be free, to not have to hide their nature, to come out openly and admit it to everyone. To not be afraid.
For now, my biggest concern was keeping Ezra safe until I could come back for him, and for that, I was going to need to talk to Calvin and see how much protection his father could provide.
Five
I couldn’t convince anyone to let me keep guard, or sleep in the chapel. No, I had to go to my room. When I dragged my feet outside, I found Ax in front of the main gates, what was left of them and what we’d been able to put up. The pieces of wood looked pathetic, but the spells around them, the ones Calvin’s father had brought, would have to be enough for tonight. Tomorrow, the ECU would have no choice but to send their soldiers here. I’d make sure of it. My legs were wobbly, but I couldn’t go to my room without talking to Ax.
The problem was, I had no idea what to say to him.
I asked Sienna and Fallon to take Ezra with them and give me a moment with Ax. Alone, it took me ages to get to him. The three ECU SUVs parked in front of the gates, waiting for morning so they could take me to the City, strangely brought me comfort now. Maybe the demons wouldn’t attack when they saw we had company, and the soldiers wouldn’t, either, now that I’d made a deal with my father. All was fine until morning.
Even though he heard me approach, Ax didn’t turn to look at me. He kept his eyes on the headlights of the cars instead. The words wouldn’t come to me, just like they refused to be spoken in the presence of my father, but while with him I had the fear of having to see him for a little longer, with Ax, it was the opposite. I was afraid of losing him.
“I need a favor,” I finally whispered, accepting that I wouldn’t know what to say to him now. Maybe in the morning, things would be different. “I need help getting to my room.”
Ax didn’t move. He pretended not to hear me.
“Or I can just sleep here.” The ground was just as good a bed as the one in my room. Still, he kept his silence and his head turned to the gates. My time was running out. “Ax, please.”
I closed my eyes just for a second, or so it seemed to me, and the next thing I knew, my arm was around his shoulders, and his around my waist. He supported my weight easily, pulled me forward like it was no bother at all. But all the while he didn’t look at me or the other people still lingering in the yard and in the hallways of the dormitories, too scared or too confused to go to sleep.
Ezra would be sleeping in the next room, but when I walked into mine, the door connecting them was closed. I’d have to open it before falling asleep, but for now, all I could do was fall onto the bed.
Ax didn’t give me a single second. As soon as I sat down, he moved for the door.
“Wait!” I called, knowing that if I didn’t stop him now, he wouldn’t be there in the morning to see me out. “Stay with me.”
Ax froze for a second then slowly turned to face me. “I can’t.”
“I know it’s hard for you to understand this right now, but when you sleep on it, you will.”
Raising his head to the ceiling, he rubbed his face hard. “Scarlet, I understand perfectly. I understand them, but I don’t understand you. If you think leaving here to work for the ECU is smart, then you shouldn’t trust your judgment right now.”
