Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1) (4 page)

BOOK: Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1)
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“I had a vision. I’d been having those my whole life too, although not as often. And never that strong before.”

“And were they grateful, when the case was solved?” Graves asked.

“Mrs. Delacroix was. My mother was not.” Thea flung off a memory of her mother’s contorted face, the same way she would have flung off a spider that crawled onto her arm. “She took it as confirmation that I was a witch. And treated me accordingly.”

“So you stopped telling people what you saw,” Graves said.

“I stopped seeing altogether. I forced myself to.” Thea looked at Alecto. “So I suppose I could force myself to start again.”

Alecto exchanged a look with Graves that Thea couldn’t read. He smiled at his niece.

“You did agree that you would at least test her.”

Alecto sighed. “I did, didn’t I?” She turned to Thea. “But if we take you to RDM to test you, there’s no going back.”

“What’s RDM?”

It was Graves who answered. “Research, Development, and Manufacturing. It’s where we develop and make hexes, among other things. The science building, if you like.”

“And as such, it’s full of trade secrets,” Alecto said. “As you can imagine, we’re very careful about who we let see certain things. If you agree to take this test, you’re agreeing to become one of us. No question.”

“But you just said you probably wouldn’t hire me. What happens if I fail your test?”

Alecto shrugged, unconcerned. “Don’t come if you aren’t confident you can pass.”

“How can I be confident if I don’t even know what the test is?”

Alecto gave Graves an impatient look. “I told you she was weak.”

Graves in turn glared at Thea. No doubt he interpreted her very reasonable questions as asking for coddling. She almost told them both to fuck off. This place was feeling more dangerous by the minute, and now they were threatening to what? She didn’t even know. It would be completely stupid to follow them to this place with no idea what they’d do to her there, after Alecto had just flat-out told her there would be no going back.

No going back to what?

Okay, there was that. She had nothing to go back to. Nobody who would miss her, except Aunt Bridget, and Bridget would miss Flannery more. No home, just an impersonal apartment with white walls and no pictures. And when that stopped feeling safe, a new impersonal apartment, somewhere else, each one blurring into the next until she died alone behind a taped door.

We can make her strong.

“It’s fine,” she said. “Let’s just go.”

The RDM building was one story, red brick like the others on campus, sprawling and oddly shaped. It was apparently kept locked, which struck Thea as a fire hazard, but she didn’t think it a good time to offer constructive criticism. Alecto positioned her shoulder so Thea couldn’t see what she punched into the keypad.

It was humid inside, and smelled like an indoor pool. Graves and Alecto led Thea into what seemed to be the main lab, a cavernous room in the center of the building that was cluttered with desks, cubicles, long tables, and shelves. The whole thing looked like chaos. Thea wondered how they could possibly keep track of everything, or anything.

A wiry fury with a shock of red hair that clashed with his skin rose from the nearest desk to greet them.

“Nero,” said Graves. “This is Thea. New recruit.”

“Potential recruit,” Alecto corrected as Thea shook Nero’s hand. “I need to do some testing on her, is Maggie here?”

Nero nodded and gestured vaguely behind him.

Alecto led them through the lab to a white door on the other side. Thea tried not to stare, but it was difficult when everywhere she looked were furies working with balls of light or shadow, clouds of gas in various smoky colors, and over one desk, what looked like a waterfall, suspended in midair and flowing into nothing. But she remembered Alecto’s warning about trade secrets, and didn’t ask any questions.

Alecto walked into the office without knocking. The woman behind the desk was identical to her, except when she stood Thea could see that she was shorter, and when she approached, that her eyes were a much plainer shade of brown. Alecto introduced her as Megaira, the head of RDM.

Graves wasn’t so formal. He hugged his niece tightly and said, “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Megaira shrugged. “I’ve been working a lot, having meals brought here.”

“Ever the mad scientist,” Graves said with a laugh. “Okay, so we need to do some tests on Thea here. Virtues and vices, then hex resistance and removal.”

Megaira’s eyebrows shot up. “Resistance
and
removal? A human?”

“We wouldn’t be interrupting you if it wasn’t for something special,” he said.

“All right. Grab Nero and meet us in Room 7,” Megaira said to Graves, then to Thea, “Follow me.” She was all business, but she didn’t seem as hard or unwelcoming as her sister.

Room 7 had three walls made of what appeared to be some sort of plastic, and one made of glass. Behind the latter was another small room, where most of the party would be observing whatever they were going to do to Thea. Nero was the only one in the room with her. He had a small black box in his hand.

“Okay, let me walk you through this,” Nero said. “Alecto probably wouldn’t, just to make you more nervous, but I’m nicer than that.”

Apparently they could hear what was going on, because Alecto tapped on the glass and glared at him. Nero didn’t seem worried about it. He just waved back at her with a grin.

Thea relaxed the slightest bit, not so much because of his words, but because he himself seemed so relaxed. “I appreciate that.”

“First part’s easy. We’re just going to test what you can sense. I want you to focus on me, and see if you can tell anything about me. Good or bad.”

“Like shame?”

“Anything at all.”

Thea took a deep breath. She’d closed off her powers so well, all those years ago. But she’d felt something since she’d come through the Hexing House gates, like a low level vibration, humming inside her. Maybe it would be easier here. She crossed her arms and looked at Nero. He didn’t seem discomfited by it, so she let herself stare.

At first nothing happened, and Thea started to feel sweat trickling down her back. She struggled to stay focused. And not to cry. But after a minute there it was, just as she remembered it: not a cloud or a color or anything at all that she could see. If anything, it was more like a scent, or maybe the recollection of a scent. In this case, a soft, salty sort of smell.

“You don’t drink,” she said. “You take good care of yourself.”

Nero laughed. “All my astonishingly good qualities, and that’s what you see? Well, temperance is an underrated virtue. Anything else?”

She’d never seen more than a single, defining characteristic, and even then only when it was intensely there, as Mr. Delacroix’s shame had been. But she tried, and found that she could.

“You’re brave and dedicated. A hard worker.”

“What about my temper?”

Thea shrugged. “I couldn’t say.”

“Virtues only,” Nero said with a glance behind the glass. Graves nodded.

“What does that mean?” Thea asked.

“It’s still more than most humans can do. Everything we do here is about vices and virtues, so it all starts with being able to see them. The next step is manipulating them.”

Nero opened the box he was carrying, then focused his gaze on her. There was the slightest violet glow in his eyes. He made a throwing motion.

Thea couldn’t see anything, but she felt it, trying to settle over her. She pushed it away with barely a thought.

“That was a low level hex,” Nero said.

Thea frowned. “What’s the box for?”

He returned her confused look. “I just told you, for the hex.”

“You need the box to cast the spell? Wouldn’t you be better off with a wand or something?”

“Oh, I see what you’re asking.” He smothered a laugh. “No, we’re furies, not wizards. Hexes aren’t spells. You don’t cast them
on
people, you cast them
at
people.”

“So it’s a physical thing?”

“No, actually, it’s not. But we’re able to contain it in this physical object, because it’s been enchanted.”

“So a hex is a thing, but not really.”

He smiled at her. “Now you’re getting it. Ready for more?”

Nero kept sending hexes of increasing intensity at her for another twenty minutes or so. Thea, confident by then, resisted them all. It took more effort with the bigger ones, but only a little more. She never felt overwhelmed, or even like she was exerting herself all that much. Nero seemed impressed, but it was impossible to read the expressions of the three behind the glass, even Graves.

When they’d finished hexing her, Graves came in and hexed Nero instead. Nero sat down on the floor and smiled at the wall.

“What is that?” Thea asked.

“Hex of serenity, usually inflicted on those being punished for the sin of wrath. This is a diluted version of it. See if you can remove it.”

Thea felt a clutch of panic. Did passing depend on being able to do this? “How?”

“That’s for you to figure out. Don’t worry if you can’t. This is really advanced stuff. It generally requires specialized training, like a doctor’s. But I just want to see how far you can go.”

So, more like extra credit then. Thea relaxed and looked at Nero, as she’d looked at him before. This time he was insulated in peace and calm. She stepped closer to him and flicked her hand, like she was clearing spider webs off him. For a second she thought she actually felt something, physically, but it was too brief to tell for sure.

Nero looked up, blinked, frowned, blinked again. Then he stood and said, “Did you already hex me?”

“Very good, Thea,” Graves said. “Now for something a little more complex. Nero, you can go back to your desk. Thanks for your help.”

“Okay, you’re welcome.” Nero pulled some sort of necklace out of his pocket and put it on. Seeing Thea watching him, he held up a round pendant dangling from the end. It was made of a metal Thea didn’t recognize and was, as far as she could tell, just a flat circle with no markings at all.  “Amulet,” he said. “Protects you from having other furies poking around in your sins. You’ll get one.” He left with a wave.

Graves followed Nero out of the room. He was gone long enough for Thea to get nervous, then came back with another fury in tow. She was bent nearly double as she walked, although she didn’t look old otherwise, and her skin, instead of the usual purple tinge, was the color of chalk. She didn’t say anything, but there were tears in her eyes.

“See what you make of this one,” Graves said.

Thea looked at the new arrival, stepped closer, looked harder. There was definitely something there, but it was different this time. Not a single, unified impression, but a cloak of simple awfulness. She tried pushing it aside with her hand again, but nothing happened. She focused harder, stared until she thought she might set fire to the woman with her eyes. But the fury did not move or respond in any way.

“Well, it was worth a try,” Graves said. “Go back and talk to Alecto and Megaira. I’ll be back with you when I’ve gotten her back to Wellness.”

In the room behind the glass, Alecto and Megaira regarded Thea with identical calculating looks.

“We haven’t tried having her hex somebody yet,” Alecto said.

“Oh come on, Lexie, nobody can do that without training, let alone a human,” Megaira said.

Lexie?
Thea had to bite her bottom lip to keep from smiling.

“But Uncle Graves thinks this one is terribly special,” Alecto said with a smirk. “We won’t know if she can until we try it.”

“Special or not, you’re being unreasonable.” Graves had come back while they were talking. “If there was even a chance non-furies could do it, we’d be out of business, wouldn’t we?”

Alecto tossed her braided head and shrugged. “What was that last test? Was that Lavinia? What was wrong with her?”

“We don’t know,” Graves said. “She came back from a job like that. They’re trying to sort it out at Wellness, but nothing’s working. I figured we might as well let Thea try.”

“Keep me posted.”

“I will. What about Thea?”

Alecto sighed and turned away from them, arms crossed. For a long time she stood, seemingly staring into space. Neither Graves nor Megaira tried to speak to her, so Thea didn’t either. But mentally, she prepared her arguments. If her tests hadn’t convinced Alecto to let her stay, she’d have to try to find another way.

“I’ve made a decision,” Alecto said finally. “She can train.” She held up a hand, as if anticipating an interruption. “But she has to pass in one month. During which time she will not be allowed any off-campus contact, to protect our knowledge capital.”

Thea’s stomach went cold. “Wait a second. I’m a prisoner now? Graves told me I could come and go as I please.”

“And you will, when your transformation is complete.”

“I can’t even call my aunt?”

“Not until you get your wings.”

BOOK: Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1)
4.98Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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