Eryx turned to face me. “No. Does that mean you won’t help them?”
This was one of myriad things I hated about the corruption of every system we lived under. There was no way to lead with honor. No way to serve my people without feeding systems that had been created solely to harm us.
I swore, tossing the Finance pages aside. “Of course I’ll help. I have to ask, Eryx.” I always had to ask. Always had to know where my people stood in the complex webs of power that governed not just Orphium, but the Three Cities as a whole. It was exhausting because it was meant to be.
If Eryx’s face softened, even a little, I couldn’t see it. He waited for further orders. Waited to find out if I would live up to his expectations of me. My heart beat faster. The Consulate’s rules said we weren’t supposed to help unregistered parapsychs. We were supposed to call situations like these into the Authority, who would send a shitty, low-level exorcist who’d get rid of the spirit, but would probably break the kid’s brain in the process.
“Divert the Authority for as long as you can,” I said. “They’ll still want to take the kid in, but we’ll do our best to stop them.” Eryx nodded, then immediately unlocked his phone. He shot off a series of texts.
“Get us to 88th and Vine,” I said, answering the question in Av’s eyes. “I’ll handle this myself.”
She nodded. When Eryx’s fingers slowed, I put my hand on my brother’s thick shoulder. “Call Lola Carmichael at theConsulate, tell her I’m calling in my favor and to get paperwork started to register an underage medium.” I couldn’t fix the world, but I could make one kid a little safer.
Eryx nodded, scrolled through his contacts list, then paused, and turned back, his green eyes open and expression earnest. “Thank you, Ares.”
He shouldn’t have to thank me. Things shouldn’t be this way. Eryx was right. A storm was coming, one I no longer wanted to stop. While I’d lived long enough to know that change wouldn’t come easily or quickly, some measure of balance had to return to Orphium. This one small act wouldn’t solve anything, but as Lux always told me, there was no way to know what would ripple. Sometimes we had to operate on instinct, and instinct told me this was the right move.
I didn’t answer Eryx, but leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, searching for my earplugs in my coat pocket. “I need to prepare. Give me a few.” I located my earplugs, took them out of their case, and shoved them in my ears.
When we got to the ramshackle tenement building at 88th and Vine, there was a small crowd gathered outside as rain came and went in frustrated spurts. Local Authority stooges loaded an ambulance up with a body bag. A woman sat on the tailgate of one of the Authority SUVs, wrapped in a blanket.
“Get these people out of here,” I murmured to Av, as I got out of the car. Eryx followed me, a heavy presence at my back that would stop anyone who didn’t know exactly who I was from questioning me.
I needn’t have asked to have the area cleared. People saw me and scurried off, shooting fearful looks at one another as I moved towards the SUV. A memory of the way peoplegravitated to Roman haunted me. People loved my father as much as they feared him. They only feared me.
There was an Authority rep already here, a thin, pale man I recognized from a few other such scenes. He wasn’t the worst sort, but anyone who voluntarily worked for the Authority was bad news. “Mike Fairchild, right?”
The Authority rep nodded, his lips pressing into a grim line as I approached. “Mr. Necroline, your talents aren’t needed here. I’ve called in an exorcist. Be on about your day.”
It was a little too much like a command. I arched one eyebrow, sinking into my weight and physical presence, using my power to manipulate auric energy to strengthen my aura. As a human, Fairchild wouldn’t see it, but he would feel it.
Fairchild blanched a touch as my aura’s vibration increased in frequency, apparently remembering who he was speaking to. His attitude was odd. Most humans feared me, feared my power over the dead, and what folks said about me in backroom whispers. Why wasn’t Fairchild afraid of me?
I put a little more power into my aura, just for good measure. “There’s no need for your exorcist, Fairchild. It’s no trouble at all.”
The woman shook her head, a sour look twisting her face. “No, not him.”
Who in this Saints-forsaken citywouldn’twant me to perform the exorcism? Maybe I was an insufferable prick, but I was also the best. My hackles went up for about a hundred reasons. “Who is this?”
Behind me, Eryx tensed. Somethingwasup with the woman. My brother was never wrong about people and if I could sense his discomfort without even looking at him, then something was off withher.
“The mother,” Fairchild said. “What she says goes, Necroline.”
Something dropped in my stomach. Fear meeting anger. The disrespect coming off this motherfucker was going to gethim killed. I would see to fixing his attitude later. Right now, my concern was the kid—and whatever’d sent that shot of fear through me.
“She’s not the child’s mother,” Eryx said, his voice low and lethal. I glanced behind me. The spirit of a dark-haired postal worker with kind eyes leaned towards my brother. Eryx was the kind of clairsentient who attracted good spiritual energy. He and Av were a lot alike in that way, though their essential talents were quite different. “She’s thestepmother, and has no legal authority over the girl. The father’s the one that got killed.”
Gravel and a tumble of dried leaves crunched under my shoe as I shifted my weight, raising an eyebrow at Fairchild as I swiped what I assumed was the woman’s identification key out of his grip. Sure enough, she had no dependents listed. The kid wasn’t hers. I tossed the key back at Fairchild, who scrambled to pick it back up.
A couple drops of rain spit out of the overcast sky. The clouds hung lower now, the air thick with the coming downpour. If we stood out here much longer, we were going to get soaked.
“That hellionmurderedhim,” the woman screeched. “She murdered her father—my husband. Channeled a spirit to help her do it.”
Every word out of the woman’s mouth sounded like a lie. I watched Fairchild as she spoke, rather than her. I knew the woman’s sort well enough. What I wanted to understand was what Fairchild knew. From the way he nodded as she rambled on, he knew full well what she was up to, and he endorsed it somehow. This was a part of a bigger picture. I’d been right about the ripples.
Av appeared beside me, as though out of thin air, spritely and terrifyingly sharp. “That one is registered, Ares,” she said, pointing an accusatory finger at the stepmother. “Pretty talented little medium herself, actually. She’s got a whole list of jobs with the Authority.”
A picture of what might be happening here formed in mymind. I liked this situation less by the second. Ripples indeed. “Why hasn’t anyone registered the girl?”
