“Yes.” I nodded.
Andris’s mouth opened, then clicked shut. He started to pace, his mouth opening again, then closing.
Uncle Andris didn’t usually show emotion or get “mad.” He kept his cool and worked things out, while my father popped off like fireworks. It was rare, but there had been times I had seen Uncle Andris upset, mad, and even furious. I had never seen him speechless.
A strangled noise clogged his throat, the vein on his forehead dancing. “You.” He pointed at me. “Follow me now!” He marched off, anger riding his shoulders like a cowboy.
“Someone’s in trouble,” Maddox sang under his breath.
“Shut up,” I snarled, feeling every bit the adolescent teen about to get grounded. I stomped after my uncle, Maddox snickering like an older brother getting his sibling in trouble.
Passing a makeshift war room, I spotted Ling at a computer, her fingers flying over the keyboards. She briefly looked up, her dark eyes meeting mine. She was good at keeping her emotions unreadable, but I swore I saw her sigh, like, “See. Once again, danger and violence follow you.”
Yeah, it did.
I followed Andris into a small cement cubicle, which only held a desk and two chairs. The table was covered in folders, and a map of the city, circled with black marker and sticky notes, was flattened out in the middle.
The room made me feel trapped, like a weight was sitting on my chest. The need to run back up the stairs and breathe in fresh air pulsed in my muscles and ached my lungs. I would never like being underground, especially in confined quarters like this. The panic instantly bubbled, sweat dripping down my back.
“Sit,” Andris ordered.
I perched on the edge, my leg bouncing.
“Brexley...” He leaned over his desk, taking calming breaths. “I know you are new to this world, but we have rules for a reason.”
“You can’t possibly be saying I should have let them be killed. Someone who has been my best friend most of my life, who was there for me when I lost my father... when I lost you. When you chose to leave me.”
He flinched. “Brex—”
“No.” I stood up, my body itching to move. “I fight for those I care about. I don’t murder them in cold blood because suddenly we are on two different sides.”
“You don’t think they wouldn’t have killed you?” His voice rose, letting emotion bleed through. I realized this reaction was more from his fear that he could have lost me to them tonight. “Don’t be fooled, girl. Caden is a chip off the old block.”
“No,” I growled defensively, jerking Andris’s head back. “He’s not. Caden might believe he is or wants to be, but I know him. I know him better than I know myself. He wouldn’t have hurt me.”
“But he wouldn’t have stopped Istvan from killing you, though,” Andris replied honestly, point-blank, and I felt the arrow hit the target dead center.
“How do you know?”
“Because.” His eyes and posture softened, sorrow in his stance. “That boy was never as strong as you. He wanted to please his father too much, even as a child. You were the one who always got him to do things outside the lines. He never would have. He followed you, Brexley... not the other way around. You were the force, the strength. So full of vigor and fire. He would have caved under Istvan a long time ago if it hadn’t been for you. You gave him life. Courage.”
“We gave it to each other.”
Andris shook his head. “Name one thing he instigated when you were kids.”
My mind tried to file through all the memories of the mischief we got up to, not able to recall one that wasn’t my idea.
“He was a follower... you have always been the leader.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I shook my head. “Caden is part of me; he’s my heart. And if I have to fight you and everyone in here, I won’t let you hurt him. Or Hanna.”
Andris watched me for a while.
“I don’t want to hurt him either, Brex. I remember sitting with both of you on either side of me, reading stories to you guys for hours. I care about Caden too, but he still is the enemy. Istvan’s son. Do you know what Istvan will do to this city to get him back? To my people if he catches them? This is my family. People I love and promised to protect.” He placed his palms on the desk, his head dropping. I could see the anguish and tough position I put him in. “I can’t let him go free, but I won’t kill him, because I know how much it would break you. I’d lose you too. And I won’t lose you again.” The cheap chair squealed as he flopped down in it. Exhaustion and torment lined his face.
“I’m sorry.” I felt horrible for putting him in this spot, but there was no other choice for me. Caden was not a sacrifice I was willing to make. “Maybe if we tell them the truth... show them what’s really going on. Fae aren’t the enemy.”
“Please.” He pinched his nose. “Caden won’t turn against his father. And I doubt the girl will either. They have been brainwashed since birth to despise fae.”
“So was I.” I tipped up my chin. “You and I both changed.”
He dropped his hand, leaning his head back into the chair, staring at me.
“Just let me try.”
He took a full minute, sixty seconds of silence, before his head dipped.
“Fine. You can try. But Brex... if it comes down to my people or them?”
“I know.” I dipped my head. I knew it was only his love for me that swayed his decision. “Thank you.”
His mouth quirked, but he didn’t reply.
About to turn and leave, my eye caught pictures of grainy images sticking out from underneath the map, moving me closer to the desk. Dread sank in my belly, recognizing what I was seeing.
Dead bodies.
“What’s this?” I tugged one out, my mouth coating in bile. Mostly decomposed, I saw a naked woman. The next one was a naked man, bloated with water, but his face was still recognizable. Fae. The next one was a young girl, the next a teen girl, the stack of photos showing various ages and gender types. Human and fae.
“What—what is this?” I asked again.
“Those are some of the bodies being found along the banks of the river in the last month.”
My memory flickered to something Scorpion had told me back in Prague.
“About a hundred fae and human bodies have been found floating in the Danube. The fae are drained of all bodily fluids. Some humans look like their brains melted out or something.”
“You have definitely found both fae and human?”
“Yes, but lately it’s been mostly fae or half-breed. Ones who aren’t noticed when they go missing.”
“What do you mean?”
“The destitute, runaways, whores.”
Dread collapsed my lungs, making me shudder for breath.
Whores like Rosie? Though I knew she was too high-scaled for what he was referring to; the majority of prostitutes, both men and women, were working the streets without the protection of a whorehouse. People with hopes and dreams of escaping the hard life, merely trying to survive.
“Who is doing this to them?”
“I don’t know for certain, but I think we both can guess.”
I struggled to swallow, my lids closing briefly. It was sad—I still held out hope that the man who raised me the last five years wasn’t this monster. But fae essence was the main ingredient in Dr. Rapava’s formula, and you couldn’t take fae essence without killing them.