She shook her head, her mouth pressing into a grim line. “I can’t talk about that place, Ember. Not ever… Unless it’s necessary for something… I just…”
“It’s okay,” I replied as quickly as I could, so that I didn’t interrupt her, but also so that she didn’t feel she needed to keep speaking. “I get it.”
There were plenty of Authority Hel-holes, and I’d seen the inside of more of them than I liked to think of. The years after I’d ascended, but before the rest of my sistren had, were dark holes in my memory. Places I didn’t touch or return to. The island had a poor grasp on how the reincarnation rituals would actually work. Nothing had gone as planned and being a “new” kind of parapsych under the first waves of the Authority’s power had been unending fear and torture.
I closed my eyes, breathing deeply, raising the walls I kept fortified within my mind to allow me to remain whole. Lara touched my hand, empathy in her eyes. She was the only person on the planet who knew a fraction of what I’d gone through. “I’m glad it’s just you and me setting the bombs,” she said,keeping her voice soft. “I’m glad we don’t have to be up there with all those people watching us.”
I hadn’t thought about it that way. It was exactly what I needed to hear. “Yeah,” I murmured. “I’m glad too.”
It felt good to sit here with her, feeling the bonds we’d built over so many years thread between us, binding us to one another in the way I’d missed so much. It was a good reminder that no matter what happened with Ares, that in the end, Lara Achilles was my secret-keeper, the person who knew the whole of me. That even when I wanted to murder her out of existence, she was my true match in the depths of darkness.
I hoped things would turn out better than I expected with Ares, but if they didn’t, I had Lara and Rhi… and hopefully Sera. If Calypso joined us, we would have new dynamics to navigate, but even with Briony, that was true. For the first time in years, it felt like there was more than just making it through the day or week ahead of me.
“Are you going to buy the houses?” Lara asked, her fingers closing around mine. “Rhi showed me the listing.”
I showed her my phone and the evidence that the deal was already done. “Movers come tomorrow. I want us out before this all goes down.”
“Shit,” Lara swore with a grin. “You moved fast.”
I shrugged. “You and Rhi were right. We need to depend less on the Consulate,andwe need to get back into a neighborhood with our people. Regular people, not just the ones who live here.” Lara’s responding sigh was so full of relief, I was offended. “Did you think I lost my way?”
Lara swallowed hard. “It’s not that, Ember.”
I shook my head, frustrated. “Was I that bad a leader? Before you went in, I mean. Be honest.”
Lara stared at her hands. “No. It wasn’t ever that. But in some ways we were the leftovers, you know? The Aradios and Palladiere cohorts were tight from the start.”
They had been. When we were children—the first time onthe island, anyway—they’d been the ones who always worked together, who always chose each other for every game, who went everywhere together. And Max had never been interested in the rest of us. She’d only been Sera’s friend. Lara, Rhi and I had been loners, not even friends with each other.
That lifetime had never felt real to me, not after being reborn. I wasn’t the woman I’d been on the island, and neither were Sera, Rhi, or Lara… But Max was still attached to who she was on Otrera, in many ways. When she ascended, she’d always thought of her past life as though it were a part of her present.
“Maybe it will help that Max plans to go back,” I murmured. “To Aradios. They’re trading Calypso out.” Lara’s silence was the stunned variety. I couldn’t blame her.
“Sera fell in love,” Lara finally replied. It wasn’t a question, but a statement. We’d all seen it coming for years.
“Yes,” I hissed, the sound of the one word slow and sibilant as I accepted that things would change. “I think she did. They’re just hurting each other now. And for whatever reason, Calypso wants out too.”
Lara blew air out her cheeks. “Well, that’ll be a change. Calypso’s good people though.”
It was true, Calypso Montague was good people. I wondered what made her want to leave Aradios.
The muscles in Lara’s shoulders tensed for a moment and then released with a long breath out. “You ever hear that rumor that the Aradios Maere can turn into mermaids?”
I laughed. “Yeah. Humans make up the weirdest shit.”
Lara laughed too. “Makes sense though, what with the fancy beaches and all that.”
I snickered. The City of Miracles was, by all stretches of the imagination, a lot nicer than Orphium—warmer, a giant bay with a better seawall than ours to keep the monsters out. Beaches. Lovely, white sand beaches.Saints, I needed a vacation.
“We’ll get the swords back,” Lara said, her voice low. “Idon’t think the Chioric weapon is real. We’re gonna make it out of this.”
I nodded, blowing past the idea that there was a weapon out there that could kill us. Better not to think about that.Ever. I ran my mouth instead. “With the swords back, we can ward off Oleander Cottage and live in Hemlock House.”
Lara nodded, glancing at me sidelong, mischief sparkling in her eyes. “Ares and the others would probably help us with that, if you asked. Might be good to have some advice on the wards from the best necromancer in the Three Cities. Would be like the old days.”
The old days… My mind drifted back, further and further into memories I didn’t particularly want to recall. I hadn’t noticed Lara leaving, or returning with blueprints of the Gallery, or that Briony was with her now. The two of them plopped down on the floor across from me, in their matching sweatsuits, spreading the blueprints out on the floor.
“Let’s talk about bomb placement,” Briony said.
