Confident that she and I are both well enough, I push to my feet to search for new clothes while considering my options.
No, I consider if I even have any options.
I could just leave, like I agreed to do, I tell her. It’s my fault Alice is in the Order’s sights, and it will be my fault if they get to my father. I can’t risk her or my father falling to Isaac. I care less about my own well-being than theirs.
“But what about Nick?” she asks, standing as I pull on a black tank and leggings.
“I don’t know,” I say. I draw my hair into a tight, high puff. Battle ready. “No one’s texted or called to find out where I am, so whatever Lord Davis and Isaac are doing, they’ve either convinced everyone I’m gone for good or they’re keeping the chapter busy in some other way.”
“With demons?”
I bend to pull on my sneakers. “If Davis plans for Nick to take up Excalibur tonight, then he’s got to have a plan in motion to expose Nick to more Shadowborn. And putting Nick in danger puts everyone else in danger, including and especially Sel.”
My eyes fall to my mother’s box.
Our Brave Bree.
“Well,” Alice says, pulling her hair up too, “I’m coming with you.”
“No, you’re not,” I say, stunned.
She raises a brow. “You’ve been doing this by yourself. You need backup.”
“No, I need you to be safe. Lord Davis is behind all of this, Alice. He’s a monster. He got people killed, he sent my mother into hiding, kept me from my family’s truth. And now he wants to start a war, killing more innocents in the crossfire. I’m not letting him anywhere near you.”
She smirks. “And I could say the exact same about you.”
I blink, speechless.
“I won’t claim to be some sort of demon hunter, but I am your best friend, Matty. I loved your mother. I love you.” She meets me in the middle of the room, close enough that I can see the steel in her eyes. “So if this is your fight, then it’s my fight too.”
49
WE WALK WIDE around the perimeter of the Lodge’s lawn, taking care not to rustle any gravel. If Isaac’s inside, it probably won’t matter, but I need to avoid detection for as long as possible. Alice is quick and careful, and follows my hushed orders without question.
By the time we reach the basement-level side door, my grandmother is back, but she’s completely asleep. Like, straight-up old person on the couch asleep. Jaw slack, slight snoring echoing in my skull, and releasing a heavy, slow feeling in my chest.
I suppose it’s for the best. I check my mental boundaries like Mariah taught me. Visualize yourself as a house. Shore up each entry point. Close the blinds. Close the chimney flue.
On the way over, I reasoned that if Isaac and Lord Davis are inside, they’d be upstairs on the main level, but now that I’m here, I’m not sure. What if the reason the upper levels are dark is because everyone’s downstairs? What if they’re not here at all, and everyone’s out fighting the Shadowborn Davis has already released? What if Nick’s already been Called and Camlann is here?
All I know for sure is that I’m here now. And if the Legendborn are here too, there’s only one person I’d trust right now to be discreet. I dig out my phone and send a quick text.
Two minutes later, the door opens to reveal William, still in his dress shirt and green suit pants, his face a mixture of relief and shock. “They told us you quit. I didn’t believe it for a second. I knew the moment you walked in wearing that dress, you were going to steal the show.” He pulls me into his arms.
“Then you knew before I did.” His bright smell floods my nose. It’s fresh. Too fresh. “Who’s hurt?”
“You’d better get inside.” When he stands back, he notices Alice. “Who’s this?”
“Alice Chen. She’s with me.”
“If she’s with you, then I trust her.” His eyes slide to mine. “But if you walk in with an outsider, then everyone will know you broke the Oath of Secrecy, and wonder, like I am, how you’re still standing.”
“Long story.”
He nods again, and I notice the sweat on his brow, his rolled-up sleeves. He tugs me into the hallway and then turns an immediate left down the stairs. “Everything’s gone to shit in the past two hours. Sel, Tor, and Sar are off hunting some demon, Russ barely made it back in one piece…” As soon as we emerge from the stairwell, we hear shouting and set off at a run.
Russ’s yelling guides us to a room I’ve never seen before. “We need to wait!” It sounds like his fist hits a table. That stops me short; I’ve never seen Russ angry enough to hit something. He and the other Legendborn are standing around a large square table covered with maps.
“No,” Fitz says, his voice booming. “Three attacks in less than two hours, and they’ve all been fully materialized. They’re moving closer to campus each time, pushing inward toward the middle. Onceborns will see them, and then what? We need to go out in full force. Now!”
No one notices us walk in. The Scions and Squires are bent over the stack of maps talking across one another, shouting in raised voices. Fitz, Evan, Felicity, and Russ are in aether armor, with weapons across backs or slung around hips, while the others are still in jeans and T-shirts. I spot Greer and Whitty in the middle of it all.
“Felicity, you’re fourth-ranked,” Russ says. His Scion stands with her arms crossed on the far end of the table, gnawing on a thumbnail. “Tor isn’t here. Nick isn’t here. You tell us what to do.”
I respond before Felicity can answer. “We’ve got to find Lord Davis. And Nick.”
They all turn to me. Russ looks like he’s thrilled to see me, and so do a few others, but some, like Fitz and Pete, look unnerved by my presence. Greer walks over to me first and wraps their arm around my neck.
“Bree, what are you doing here?” Felicity says, coming around the table to hug me too. Her armor tingles against my skin.
“Who the hell is this?” Fitz says. Alice is tucked back in the shadows, her eyes wide and bright. She’s keeping quiet, just like I told her.
“A Vassal,” I say.
William chimes in. “Someone we can trust.” That seems to settle the room some.
Fitz’s eyes narrow. “Lord Davis said you rejected Nick’s offer after the gala.”
“I’ll tell you everything, but first, catch me up. Where are Nick and his father?” I step closer to the table. In the center of the pallet rests a large piece of paper covered in topographic lines and color-coded circles and squares. A map of campus.
Felicity joins me at the table. “We don’t know. They came back after the gala, argued in the foyer. Davis said you were gone, and Nick just—”
“Flew off the handle,” Evan says.
Felicity nods. “It was loud enough that we could all hear, even in our rooms. I don’t think Lord Davis wanted an audience. He told Nick they should talk privately, and then they left.”
“Then shit got real weird,” Pete mutters. Several pairs of eyes turn to him. He shrugs. “What? It did!”
William looks nervous. He rubs his thumb over his brow. “Sel sensed a demon a little over an hour ago, just off campus. He, Felicity, and Russ went after it.”