“Seems a bit soon,” muttered Emilio. “Didn’t you just lose an entire group? Masika told us nearly a dozen members went missing on a tracking mission.”
“There’s no time to mourn,” Catherine shot back defensively. “Not anymore. The entire balance of the afterlife is in our hands. And we’ve received word that the Demien Order has begun to plan their attack on Blackwood. That it could happen any daynow.”
Olivier snorted, dismissively waving his hand. “Oh, please. I’ve been hearing about the Order’s big plan of attack for centuries—”
Centuries?Masika mouthed to Emilio, who flushed a deep crimson and shrugged.
“—and nothing ever happens,” Olivier continued. “They follow their make-believe God and wait for a prophecy that will nevercome to fruition. What makes you so certain that anything has changed?”
“Because of Augustine Hughes.”
The entire room seemed to go taut as soon as the words left Catherine’s lips.
Emilio still couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that August was a part of the Demien Order. When Masika had revealed to them what she had learned—that August had been an undercover member of the Demien Order from the very start—a part of him had been unwilling to accept the betrayal.
The August that Emilio had known had been many things—stoic, callous, intimidatingly beautiful. Yet, despite all that, it had never occurred to Emilio that August might have been harboring something darker.
And, truthfully, it wasn’t even August being a Demien that stung.
It was the fact that he had lied to them.
That he had been planning their destruction all along.
When Olivier spoke next, his words came out slow and rough. “What does August have to do with this?”
Emilio shivered at the ire in Olivier’s voice. They hadn’t talked about it much, but Emilio could tell that August’s betrayal had badly wounded the other boy. That Olivier had, in his own strange way, grown to trust August.
“He haseverythingto do with this,” Catherine shot back. “His sister, Edith, is the High General of the Order. He allowed her to infiltrate the gates of Blackwood. We don’t know what the particular goal of her mission was, but we can only assume she was successful. Which means that if we want to have any chance of stripping Silas’s power and stopping the Demien Order beforethey destroy Blackwood and everyone inside it, then we need to act fast. Weneedthe True Headmaster.”
“I want to go,” Masika blurted out, standing.
Catherine blinked. “Excuse me?”
“On the expedition,” Masika clarified, slightly out of breath. “I want to be a part of the expedition crew.”
“It’s dangerous,” Catherine replied, voice level, though Emilio swore he saw a flicker of panic in her eyes. “The outskirts of purgatory are…perilous. We have the path mapped out, but there’s so much of it that remains uncharted. There’s no way to guarantee your safety. I already had a group in mind—”
Masika shook her head, interjecting. “I don’t care. Plus, I heard what you said in the Battle Room. You need as many people as possible to stay behind. To defend the base. Well, let me go on the expedition, then. That’s one less body you have to worry about.”
“Masika…” Olivier warned, bracing himself against the table. “Hold on a minute—”
“If this is truly the only way to stop Silas and the Demien Order, then I want to be a part of it,” Masika said, looking among the group. “I can’t just sit here anymore. I need to act. To dosomething. If not for myself, then for all the other souls that have been lost. For Josie. Carter. Tristan. Liza. Nick. Wren.”
Emilio’s heart sank at the memory of the sacrificed nominees. He couldn’t quite believe they were all gone. Nothing butsacrifices. And though the memory of their collective loss was heartbreaking, Emilio had to admit that it was Wren’s destruction, out of all of them, that pained him the most.
The last they’d heard, Wren had participated in the final trial. And though her fate wasn’t clear, given the fact that Irene had come out crowned as an Ascended, they could only assume she hadn’t made it.
It was unfathomable—an afterlife without Wren Loughty. Emilio had always seen her as a brilliant, indomitable force. Indestructible.
And now she was gone.
Just like that.
Olivier stirred uncomfortably, the sound of his voice pulling Emilio back into focus. “But you heard what Catherine said. You could…you could be destroyed. Or taken hostage—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Masika interjected.
Olivier scoffed. “Well, have you perhaps thought to consider, for even a fraction of a second, the possibility that you might matter to other people?”
