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“What?” he asks. “One less Noctu. You should be happy. We did good work.”
She takes one last look at Phil and stands up. Her face is ashen as she stares at Mr. Brian with horror. I see the questions in her eyes, but she doesn’t dare to voice them. She can’t let on that she knows. Mr. Brian probably wouldn’t hesitate to kill her next. It’s the perfect opportunity. Losing her life in a fight with a Noctu …
My history teacher goes to the dead man and rummages through his pockets, taking his valuables and pocketing them. “That way, it’ll look like a mugging.” Then he turns around.
Charles glances at Frida with a look that speaks volumes, but he has no choice but to follow his supposed friend.
I’m released from the memory and find myself standing beside Frida again. She gives me a look that expresses more than words could say. I see the suffering in her eyes, the guilt, the desperation she must have felt all these years. She feels partially responsible for the fact that Kennwood died, and with him a chance for peace between the two camps. But there was nothing she could do to stop Mr. Brian.
Frida takes a few steps. I look around for more bubbles without keyholes. There must be more that my great aunt is prepared to share with me. And sure enough, I find another soap bubble. I peer into it and find myself in another alley. It appears to be the middle of the night. Frida looks anxious and intensely focused. Beside her is a huge dog-like creature – her key spirit. Although I can’t feel it, I’m sure she’s in the process of sending out odeon. Is she trying to lure out the fallen?
Suddenly, a figure emerges out of the darkness. A man with long black hair and a crooked nose. His arms are folded in front of his chest, and he looks at Frida mistrustfully.
“So you’re the one who keeps roaming the streets and harassing us with your odeon. Are you trying to win the most gold stars for luring us out and killing us, or what?”
“I was sending out odeon deliberately, but I haven’t killed any of you – not even the fallen.”
“You’ve injured several,” he says, moving a step closer.
“I had to defend myself,” she concedes in a small voice. Then she squares her shoulders. “I had no other choice. I needed to speak to one of you. And now I finally have a chance to do that.” It’s as if she’s trying to pluck up the courage to say what she wants to say. She hesitates, takes a deep breath, and clenches her fists. “I want to defect to the Noctu.”
The black-haired man raises his eyebrows in amazement. “Well, I really wasn’t expecting that. Why should I believe you? Maybe you just want to spy on us for your people. It wouldn’t be the first time one of yours tried to do that.”
She shakes her head. “There’s no reason for you to believe me, but I hope you will. I can’t do this anymore. Not only have I lost the respect of the hunters, now I have to answer to a monster. The guy is persecuting me. But even that I could cope with …
The Noctu seems to lose interest and turns to go. “I couldn’t care less about your mental wellbeing,” he says.
But Frida is undeterred. “I’ve asked questions – again and again. But the answer I keep getting …” She shakes her head. “I did my own research, which only reinforced my suspicions.”
The Noctu waves his hand dismissively, takes out his key, and opens a door. “It was nice talking to you, but you should go back to your people. I can’t help you.”
“I was there when Phil Kennwood was murdered,” she cries.
The Noctu pauses and slowly turns around. His face is now twisted in a furious grimace, and I’m afraid he might lunge at Frida at any moment. “You killed him?”
“I was there and played my part. But that day changed everything for me. We could have had peace. An end to the fighting, suffering, and death. But now that chance is lost forever. I can’t accept that. And that’s one reason I don’t want to keep doing what I’m doing. I want to change things, and I can’t do that if I stay on my current path. But maybe I can if I’m on your side.” She looks at him hopefully.
A minute of silence passes as he scrutinizes her. Then the Noctu nods. “Fine, but you’ll need to prove yourself.”
He gestures for her to follow him and steps through the door. Frida hesitates for a second, then hurries to the door and follows him.
“I guess you know that I had to collect the breath of a dying person?” Frida’s voice asks inside my head.
I nod.
“That was the condition for becoming one of them. And they gave me a special vessel for collecting dying breaths.”
“I know.”
“I received an important assignment, which I was happy to accept. But in order to complete it, I had to become irrelevant to the Tempes. I had to drop off the Council’s radar. So I left the hunters and took the job of school secretary. In order to perform tasks for the Noctu, I frequently feigned illness, and that gave the impression that my health was failing. That’s how I lulled Arthur into a false sense of security and gave him the impression that I was no threat. Nobody suspected that I was pursuing a very clear plan in the background.
I return to the meadow, and Frida shunts one of the bubbles toward me with her claw.
“You were searching for the goddesses of destiny,” I say. I pieced that together over time, mostly with the help of the wall of photos and newspaper clippings that she concealed in her secret room.
She nods, and I peer into the bubble.
Chapter 26
