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Lily took a guess. Ivan thinks Grace is trying to trap Toshi. If I claim Toshi like she’s planned, he’ll get caught and go to jail. I think it’s because she wants to replace him with Rowan as Ivan’s second. Toshi is strong, but Rowan is still stronger.
He’s definitely trying to protect Toshi from something, Rowan said.
Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s you.
It was clear that between the two of those options, Rowan felt that she was the greater threat.
I’m not out to ruin anyone else’s life, Lily said, stung. She thought of Toshi’s parents—his father’s swollen fingers and the sound of his mother’s voice, sickly and weak in the next room. She let her coven view the memory with her. Toshi has family here, and they need him. I’ve decided that claiming him isn’t an option anymore, even if he is willing. She started looking through her things for something suitable to wear. There’s only one way to find out why Ivan really gave us the map. We follow it, and maybe get out of here tonight.
She let her coven go back and forth, arguing. There were a dozen reasons to wait and a dozen reasons to act immediately. None of those reasons mattered to Lily anymore. She just wanted out of Bower City.
Lily was dressed in a dark silk tunic, pants, and flat black shoes, and sitting patiently at the end of her bed with the lights off by the time they realized that she was going with or without them. She even had a bag of salt in one pocket and a small jar of the miracle soap in the other, just in case they actually made it out of the city and found themselves on the road back to Salem.
Okay. But we’
re going in three small groups, not as one big herd, Rowan insisted.
Lily stood and went into the bathroom. She lit all the candles she could find there and began gathering their energy slowly so as not to disturb the Hive. She didn’t know if fueling her mechanics would be considered an act of aggression, and she wasn’t about to take any chances alerting them. Their best bet at avoiding the Hive was to act as calmly as they could. A witch wind whistled through the window and Lily slowed her harvest until the wind lowered to a soft moan.
Caleb took command as he’d done on the trail. Una and Tristan with Lily first, he said. I’ll go with Juliet second. Breakfast, you and Rowan last.
I’m going with Lily, Rowan insisted.
No you’re not, Caleb ordered. You go with Breakfast or you don’t go at all.
Lily could feel Rowan struggling with this and resisted the urge to support him. Let’s go, she said, ending the conversation. She changed the energy she’d gathered from the candle flames into force and flooded her coven’s willstones with power. She felt them all stretch and sigh as they soaked in her strength.
They waited for the sounds of the villa to die down, and then left their apartments in the groups and in the sequence that Caleb had designated. As Lily flowed through the darkness, Una and Tristan on either side sweeping her along with them, she connected her coven each to each, unifying them even though they were physically parted. Caleb’s caution, Tristan’s thrill, Una’s prowl and pounce, were all joined into one. Rowan’s unease at being away from Lily was like a twanging note in the song, out of tune with the rest.
The coven made their way through the foyer, through the side door, and down the long passageway connecting the villa to Hearing Hall. There were no locks on the doors and each group of the coven breezed through, so fast and silent with Lily’s strength in them that they neared invisibility. Lily knew the Workers were there, but she doubted even their multifaceted eyes could see her preternaturally swift coven under the cover of night.
The map was in Lily’s mind’s eye as she glanced around Hearing Hall. The oculus let in a beam of bright moonlight onto the marble floor, but the light was lost in the silver-black shadows among the pillars. The air was heavy, and the empty space was anxious for them to make a sound for it to amplify. The weight of silence was a ringing pressure inside Lily’s ears. She saw something move among the pillars, just off the edge of her vision. She snapped her head around to find it, but there was nothing there.
The other two groups joined hers shortly.
Look for the way down, Rowan said in mindspeak as he and Breakfast caught up to the rest of them.
The doors, Tristan replied, already moving to them. One goes to the villa, but what about the other two?
Caleb sped down one passageway, his connection to Lily getting thin as the crystals in the marble distorted his willstone’s vibration. He came back shaking his head.
It leads to another government building. It looked like offices, he said.
Tristan tried the third door, and it opened into emptiness. There are no stairs. How do they get down with no stairs?
You’d need wings, Breakfast said, joking.
Rowan leaned through the open door and let his magelight brighten, trying to judge the distance down. His light never reached the ground. Yes. You would, he said in all seriousness. Then he launched himself over the edge.
Lily felt her heart fly into her throat. She pushed her way through the others and knelt at the precipice to watch Rowan’s magelight descend into darkness. By the time he reached the bottom it was only a faint glimmer. Rowan’s feet, then knees, and then hands met the ground as he dispersed the energy up through his body in stages, ending with the thwacking sound of his palms slapping down. Lily’s skeleton jolted and her teeth clacked together along with Rowan’s.
I’m all right, he said. He stayed in a crouch for moment, checking his surroundings before straightening up. Two of you will have to make the jump carrying Juliet and Lily, but everyone else should be able to make it.
Lily was still shaking when she felt Tristan pick her up in his arms and jump. She clutched at his neck and held her breath as she dropped down into the smothering belly of the earth. Even as she fell, Lily could feel the deadening hum of quartz in the soil around her. It was like entering a tomb.
Her whole body rattled with the impact of their landing. Tristan did his best to shield Lily from it, but even fora witch-fueled mechanic it had been a long drop. Lily felt Rowan’s hands catching her and running over her lightly to scan for any damage.
I’m not injured, she told him privately in mindspeak. He removed his hands, but ignored the group order and stayed nearby as the coven began to move through the gloom.
