She touched several that had black slashes through them, her eyes narrowing. “All of these are days after Lara’s kills.”
“Days after…” My mind raced. “These are the dates the murders she prevented were supposed to occur?”
Ember nodded, frowning deeply as she pointed to one of the earliest dates on the web. “This is when the swords were stolen.”
I looked through the photographs again. They were all from different, empty locations. None were familiar to me but the one where my parents’ shop had stood. As Ember looked at them, she began to shake her head. “No…”
“What?” I asked.
“Someone is playing a very long game,” she murmured.
“Ember,” I insisted, suddenly desperate to know what my parents had to do with any of this. “What do you know?”
She held up a finger, then took her phone from her pocket. She snapped several photos, then closed the folder. “We have to get out of here.Now.”
Just after she spoke, Stanley appeared again, still in his two-headed, bat-wing cat form. He sent several images to me telepathically—CCTV footage of the Senator in a cab.
“There’s no cameras in this place, but we’ve tripped an alarm,” Ember hissed. “Senator Cromvale is a devotee of Chiore.”
My blood ran cold at the name. On the island, Rhiannon had reacted badly to my question about the destruction of Chiore’s temple. “What is the truth about Chiore, Ember? What did she do to the other gods?”
Ember swallowed hard. “She forged a weapon that could end a true immortal’s life. She swore it was to keep balance, but she wielded it like a threat.”
“How do you know Cromvale is devoted to her?” I asked, desperate to see what she did.
Ember let out a frustrated noise, something between a growl and a squeal. “These places. In Orphium’s ancient past, before you were born, before the Consulate or the Authority, they were all her temples. Humans sacrificed parapsychs to her. Fed them to her flames for favors. She was the only god who did not create parapsych children. She created the monsters.”
The monsters. The Ceti. The Kraken. The multitudes of creatures that inhabited the vast wastelands between the three territories. If they were her children, what did that mean? And why would anyone worship such a god?
I remembered the fire in the flower shop after my parents had been murdered. Fury mounted in my veins—had they been asacrifice? “What did they hope to accomplish by this?”
Ember leaned forward, taking my hands in hers, pushing me towards the door. “Do you remember the way that Fairchild moved the night we rescued Briony?”
I nodded, but pulled back, reluctant to leave until I understood what we were dealing with.
“That wasn’t a Thaumas-made miracle,” she hissed. “He sacrificed something, someoneto Chiore for the power, and he obviously meant to do the same to Briony. There have always been rumors that the Chiorics liked to sacrifice young parapsychs because Chiore liked the taste of potential best.”
That was impossible. Or at least I’d been led to believe it was impossible to reach the Saints, let alone gods. I shook my head. “Are you saying what I think you are?”
Ember placed the folder back in the shallow divot in the floor, then closed the trapdoor. “Do you think I’m suggesting that some sect of the Authority worships Chiore?”
Truly, I hadn’t gotten quite that far, but that was the gist ofwhat I’d been thinking, so I nodded. Ember kicked the rug back over the trapdoor, moving quickly to the table. We moved it back into position together.
I touched her arm. “Is the story about Chiore’s weapon true?”
Ember sighed. “No one knows. A group of Maere left the island before the mists descended. They were supposed to hunt the weapon down. No one’s heard from them since.” That didn’t make me feel any better, but it also didn’t make me feel worse. Her forehead shone with a gleam of sweat. “Cromvale will know someone was here.”
I nodded, then glanced up. Several baseball bats hung on the wall, and vaguely I remembered that Cromvale had played in college. I grabbed one, tossing it to Ember, then pulled down another for myself. “Then I think we need to make it difficult to tell what we meant to do here.”
A slow smile spread over her face. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 30
EMBER
I threwthe slugger over my shoulder as I marched into the living room. I glanced back at Ares, who followed me with the kind of purpose that made every part of me tingle. “How long have we got?”
“About thirty minutes,” he replied. “Why?”
