Page 97 of A Serpent in the Garden

You’ll be caught in a literal crossfire—

I’m sure Finn would blink us out if things get too ugly, I cut across him, and I’m not exactly a helpless victim when I’m currently playing host to a demon.

You don’t think he might recognize you’re possessed?

Maybe not from afar. Maybe he wouldn’t notice until it’s much too late.

No. I don’t like this.

Well I don’t like how fickle you’re being, I said, firing up. This is what you wanted. That’s why I agreed to come here in the first place.

I never wanted this. I never wanted you in danger. I didn’t even want you going in the fucking wood because I was afraid you’d die—

“It’s not your choice, Remy,” Finn said loudly, as if he’d heard the argument in my head. “All choice was taken from her the second your own idiocy landed you in her body and if she wants to do this, then who are you to stop her?”

“She’ll just be bait.” Valic lifted himself up on his elbows, still sprawled out on the grass. “It’s not like we have any better options.”

“Bait can be hurt or killed as easily as the two of you.” Remy sounded as if he’d like to knock their heads together.

“I don’t think you’re appreciating what she’s offering us,” Finn snapped, looking at me as if he could scarcely believe what he was seeing. “She’s giving you what you’ve wanted for years, handing it over on a silver platter, and you’re turning up your nose? Riquin can’t help us and Casper is unreachable. We are all we have right now. How badly do you want him dead? I seem to recall it consumed your every waking thought. You almost let it kill you once, right here in this city.”

I felt no denials from Remy, just sullen, silent agreement. There was a sickness in his anger, an obsessive volatility, and it would never go away. Not until he saw Luceric properly dealt with.

“My mother is going to kill us if she catches wind of this,” he finally muttered.

Finn arched an eyebrow. “Oh?” Big smile, blinding teeth. “And what will she do, throw you and me into a Frost cell? We can’t freeze. I doubt she’ll banish you into another human given how unsuccessful her first attempt was. Fury will lie through their teeth and swear Valic never left. Even if she can prove you and me weren’t there during the lockdown, I’ve already laid a rumor about hunting for a wild chimera I wanted to bring back to Flame. Perhaps I asked for your assistance. It’s not as if any other Frost demon is friendly enough to help me out. It was a dreadful emergency and we were sadly unsuccessful but we had to try. It was a chimera, for God’s sake. What a boon to Flame it would have been.”

“A chimera.” Remy barked out a laugh, as if this was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. “The second the council learns of Luceric’s death, they’ll know who made it happen.”

“The council might know it was us but if I show them all the evidence I collected over the past six years I doubt any of us will be punished very harshly. Even if we are, I’d consider it a fair exchange to don Hellguard armor and work beneath a fool like Marcic for a few years. I always wanted to spend more time with the hounds.”

Remy brought my hand to my throat, dragging my thumb across the hollow, where my pulse beat. “You have to promise me you’ll blink her out if things start to go wrong. I mean it, Finn.” He focused on his brother’s golden eyes. “The second it starts to look bad.”

“I would shield her with my own body if I had to,” Finn said, smiling slightly as a gust of playful wind ruffled his hair.

The sun was directly above our heads when the first bells began to ring out across the city, and more and more soon took up their jubilant tolling.

“They ring the bells for celebrations and important funerals here,” Finn said into my ear. “They have no idea that today they ring for both.”

He and I watched the white-clad human tide descend upon the church, settling into pews. He’d drawn his hood up to hide the glare of his skin and had his arms around my waist from behind. On the off-chance anyone should see us, half-hidden amongst the shade of young apple trees in the orchard off the field, we looked like a pair of lovers watching the services from afar.

There wasn’t much to see, at first. Most of the finer details were lost to the distance, at least for me. The suffocating blue of the sky, the sunbeams glancing off all the white, the thick green carpet of grass beneath the pews, the sea flashing by turns blue and gold. Upturned faces, voices trumpeting words I couldn’t make out.

The bells kept tolling; I could feel my pulse echoing them. Alone in that dark room of my mind, Remy was motionless as stone. He hadn’t even made an annoyed noise when his brother had taken me into his arms.

“Do you know what you’re going to do?” I asked Finn, mostly for the sake of saying something, anything.

“I need to take his wings first to land him. He isn’t a warrior, so he can’t disappear at will the way we can. Valic would be very upset with me if I didn’t let him sink in a few knives. Cage him in flame, let him burn, blink out before Remy has a fit. Though I feel Remy might be a lot of help if he put his mind to it. His mother’s power is boundless, yet he could never be bothered to scratch the surface of whatever pieces of her he’s inherited. What a waste.”

That at least earned an annoyed rustle from Remy’s cell.

“You make it sound so easy,” I said.

“It could be. He may hesitate. It’s a bit of an unwritten rule that we don’t attack one another. Nothing would make the world more unstable than a war between our kinds. Something he should have considered before killing our father. Are you hearing this?” Finn nodded toward the church, sounding both disgusted and tickled. “Your light warms our days, your light guides our stars?” He paused, drinking in the rest before repeating it back to me. “We thank you for the pure white light of your divinity, for the blade of righteousness at your back, for the enduring love you bear this city.”

“Is the blade metaphorical?”

“He carries one, though it’s mostly ceremonial. I’d be surprised if he could wield it well. He’s just a scribe. The only reason he ever got the upper hand on our father is because he stabbed him in the back. So much for honor.”