Crest (Ondine Quartet Book 3) (29 page)

Thick silence dripped in the car.

I had to give Julian credit. His expression remained blank. "What are you talking about?"

"Figured it out when I heard about the nix who approached my group while I was in Lyondale. Heard he disappeared soon after. Right around the time you returned to Haverleau." Ian shrugged. "Plus, Kendra took you with her to New York for all that crazy investigative stuff."

Julian looked at me.

I lifted my hands. "Not a word."

This was what happened when your friends had higher IQs than your bank account balance. Nothing really stayed a secret for long.

Ian backed me up. "She didn't say anything. But I also know her. She wouldn't have taken you unless you were already involved or had something more to offer. No offense."

Way to boost relations.
"That's not exactly —"

"None taken," Julian muttered.

"So you're a Projector?"

He sighed. "Yeah. Does Aubrey know?"

"I haven't said anything to her." Ian leaned back in his seat. "Figured you weren't telling people for a reason. But if she hasn't figured it out yet, she will."

She probably already had and was keeping quiet for the same reasons as Ian.

Julian hesitated. "It doesn't bother you?"

Ian gave a tired smile. "I figured out how to use latent nix magic to befriend Kendra at a human school. If your Virtue bothered me, I'd be the biggest hypocrite on the planet."

Anger briefly flared. Julian's mother had made him ashamed of something he should be proud of. And elementals had turned Ian and his friends into social pariahs and criminals because of their blood.

All of it because they feared what they couldn't understand, unable to accept that choice had more power than blood or magic.

We climbed out into the brisk cold and cautiously made our way to the front steps.

The door opened. A tall man with tangled coarse hair and fierce dark eyes stood just inside.

"Hurry!"

We ran. I barely got through the entrance before the door whooshed past the back of my legs and slammed shut.

"Were you followed?" He rushed to the window and peered out.

"No," Ian said calmly.

"Are you sure?" Right hand spasmed, left hand gripped a .50 caliber revolver.

While Ian reassured twitchy Bigfoot, I walked around the small space.

Faint light filtered through dusty blinds. Cluttered kitchenette took up the back wall. Dusty monitor connected to state-of-the-art hardware and twelve security monitors lined a large metal shelf.

He'd tracked us for at least four miles before we hit the hidden dirt trail.

North wall was an armory with enough guns, crossbows, and grenades to take out a city block.

A chessboard lay on a metal table shoved into the corner. Looked like Ray was in the middle of a game.

I tilted my head.

"What?" Julian murmured.

"Just looking for the manifesto."

He sat on a folding chair and nodded at the table. "Wrong conspiracy."

An open book about Templars and Freemasons rested on it.

Ray whipped around, gun up. "Don't touch anything."

Heavy bags sagged under dark eyes, skin weathered from years outdoors.

Julian and I froze.

He glared for another moment, then strode to the refrigerator and pulled out an energy drink.

Empath gently touched him as soon as his back turned.

No magic
, Ian mouthed.

I lifted my hands and immediately pulled out.

Nixes were paranoid to begin with, but Ray took it to another level. An intense level of anxiety, distrust, and fear swirled inside him.

"They're always listening and watching so you have to be careful." He aimlessly wandered toward the window and peeked through the curtain. "Waiting to intercept messages. Hearing what we're doing."

All right, I'll bite.
"Who?"

"Aquidae listen," he mumbled. "Selkies watch, they watch all the time. Dessondines listen through pipes and flowing water. It's everywhere, they're everywhere, can't escape them. They get into your head and you can't get them out."

Ian remained still, eyes steady. Julian adopted an expression of infinite boredom.

Ray sat, drink in hand. His other arm bounced against his thigh, twitchy fingers clutching the gun.

Fierce eyes fastened on me. "You're the
sondaleur
."

He didn't sound very enthused.

Wariness stirred at his agitated movements. "Kendra."

Six-one, built on the lean side, and favoring his left leg. If he pulled anything, I could take out the right knee so Julian could control him from behind.

Probably in decent shape beneath the baggy clothes. Loaded gun posed a problem, though. Bullet could catch me before I reached his knee...

I caught Ian's exasperated look.

Right. Calm and friendly.

I focused on rearranging my face.

"Expected someone bigger." His attention shifted to Julian. "And you. Would've expected more from the first LeVeq chevalier. Redavi family made you soft, huh?"

Julian shrugged. "Sorry we disappoint you."

"No, you're not." Ray's eyes suddenly gained lucidity. "You like disappointing others first before you can really disappoint them."

Julian's bored look flickered for a second. Huh.

"Ray," Ian said, tentative. "The
sondaleur
is trying to locate the Shadow's mortal form —"

"You're not going to find him."

I raised my brow. "Yes, I am."

"How?"

I smiled. Enough with the bullshit. "Because you're going to tell me any recent news you heard about Aquidae. Maybe even something about an elemental traitor. And that's going to lead me to him."

Ray studied me for a moment, then deliberately turned to Ian. "How long since I saw you?"

"Around ten years."

"You were small then. Dad was a real charmer."

Pain tightened Ian's eyes.

His father, Callan, had forcibly been turned into a vicious Aquidae responsible for an extensive trafficking ring and countless murders.

Ian spent five years tracking him down and I'd ended his life two months ago. The mission cost Aubrey her arm and added another scar to his life.

"Heard what happened." Ray nodded sagely. "They'll always get you. Don't matter where you go, how you hide. They know."

He stood and paced, eyes darting to the security monitors.

"No one's really protected," he explained. "Warriors must protect both. On land, they're constrained by binding partners and binding births. Those underwater don't understand mortal compulsions." He paused. "And the created ones don't have anything."

Mind unraveled his words and spotted the truth in them.

Selkie warriors' vulnerability lay in the need to protect both forms. Despite their healing ability, they had their limits. Inflicting enough injuries to kill them was difficult but possible. Another way was to crush their
pedaillons
.

The ones on land referred to ondines, whose lives remained at the mercy of their mates and their children. Underwater dessondines had powerful magic, but no ability to fight or defend themselves from attacks.

The created ones were the demillirs, a race that didn't exist until ondines mated with humans. Other than the Head Chevalier, they had no real say in our world.

It was the reason so many of them chose to be Rogue.

I leaned forward. "Talk to us."

"No, no. Not telling you anything." Voice gained a desperate edge. "They always find you."

Fear was an insidious disease, a cancer buried deep within your cells, hiding as it slowly multiplied and ate away at you.

And Ray was currently in its grip.

He took another long drink and I wondered when was the last time he slept.

"We got them, though." Ian brushed back a lock of hair. Thin light reflected off the diamond in his ear. "The assholes who hurt my family and so many others. The ones who hurt you."

Ray sat again, fingers tightening around his drink. Gun trembled in his hand.

"Heard about that, too," he finally said.

"You can help." Ian leaned in, face glowing with sincerity. "You can be a part of this. Help the
sondaleur
take the whole thing down. You'd finally be safe, Ray. All of us would."

Nervous eyes flitted between me and the others.

I tried to make my expression as earnest as Ian's. Julian grimaced and slightly shook his head.

Screw it. "Anything can help. Anything you heard, any chatter that might lead us to the traitor or to the Shadow."

His left leg started bouncing up and down. "No, no. Can never be careful enough."

"I promise —"

"Doesn't matter." Gun hand waved. That finger looked way too itchy. "The end is coming anyway."

I was careful not to make any sudden moves. "Why do you think that?"

"It's all over the network," He jerked his head toward the battered monitor.

Ian flinched. The gun had tilted toward him.

"It's gone and now the end is coming."

I gritted my teeth. "What's gone?"

"The tip of the bond, of course."
 

"Of course."

I exhaled and turned to Julian.

This is a waste of time
.
Do something.

He shrugged, posture so relaxed it bordered on disinterest.

"The
sondaleur
can bring about our own end, Ray," Ian said. "If you work with us to —"

"She doesn't need me. She needs the other players." He jumped up and studied the chessboard. "King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, and Knight. All need to move across the board to win the game."

I tried to steer his rambling back to the original topic. "Why is the tip of the bond important?"

Ray pressed his fingers to his lips and made his way back to the window. He checked outside again, gleaming eyes darting left and right.

"Because it kills it, you see," he murmured. He pulled a blind down and a striped pattern of light and dark rippled across his face. "With one, all are gone. "

This was a bust.

The guy barely made sense and the last thing I needed was info from someone drowning in fear and obsessed with conspiracies.

Julian leaned forward, expression suddenly shifting from disinterested to focused.

"Who, Ray? Who's going to be gone?"

He slowly turned. Eyes widened, the whites eerily bright against his leathery skin.

"The gardinels. They're going to die."

***

Eyes narrowed. Lips twisted into a snarl.

I imagined letting fury run wild and breaking it between my hands.

The camera didn't budge.

"Making yourself look awful isn't helpful." Helene shifted. "But being boring can literally make people die. Can't you do something?"

I turned my attention back to the history book. "My life is not about entertaining you."

After another grueling training session with the gardinels, I'd taken a shower and joined Aubrey at the library hoping to find something that'd help me with the Armicant.

Unfortunately, Helene had managed to find me.

"Oh, look." Aubrey pointed at her laptop screen. "She posted you on her account."

Video played back footage of one of my early morning runs on the track behind the Training Center in Haverleau. It'd gotten a slew of likes and comments.

"How did you find it?"

Aubrey shrugged. "I'm subscribed to her channel —"

"Thanks!" Helene chirped.

"And Julian linked to the video."

I was going to kill him.

Wait, he was second. The first was in front of me.

"Helene, we're in the middle of a war," I said through my teeth. "You can't release video online that may be providing info —"

"I'm not that stupid. I check everything before I post it."

"Ian double-checks," Aubrey murmured. She switched tabs in her browser. "Amber's having a blow-out fight with Jaime and Cara."

"I thought those two stayed in Haverleau."

"They did. They're fighting online."

I groaned. "Aub, I have enough drama in my own life."

"Yeah, I know." Aubrey frowned. "But you need someone to monitor what that group is doing."

She had a point.

"Amber pissed off a lot of her Redavi buddies. I can't see what she originally posted but a lot of vague references to it on other people's accounts."

"You think it's about..." I stopped.

Mentioning the ondine training program before it was ready would be disastrous.

Helene's camera stayed on me, its weight pressing against my skin.

It was impossible to have any sort of decent conversation with that thing around.

Luckily, Aub knew what I was talking about. "You mean that thing with Chloe? It doesn't look like it. This is more personal."

Prosthesis clunked on the table and frustration flickered through her eyes.

Most of the typing was done by her left hand, but she was trying to practice with her right.

Finger held down the shift key.

"Is it getting easier?"

She exhaled. "It's not so much what it can or can't do. Things are just slower now."

Which was what frustrated her the most. Aubrey thrived on speed. She liked fast cars and getting things done in half the time.

"Ian's trying to think of a way to attach some kind of weapon to it." Her eyes lit up. "How awesome would that be? I'd point and a badass pistol would pop out of my wrist."

Helene spoke up. "What about brass knuckles?"

"Or ninja shooting stars."

Their discussion on wrist weaponry reminded me of the collection at Ray's place.

Ian and Julian spoke to Tristan and Jeeves about the info Ray provided. If you could even call it that.

We'd called Ewan on the way back to the palace and he had no idea what in the world we were talking about. He then lectured me on basic selkie history until I wanted to leap through the phone and choke him.

Ray was a conspiracist who'd spent way too many years alone with nothing but weapons and a computer for company.

But I couldn't shake the uneasiness.

"You ever heard of a weapon that works specifically against gardinels?" I asked Aubrey.