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“Did you tell her I’m with you?” Prudencia asks.
“You said you didn’t want to put a label on it yet.”
“Not romantically. That I’m physically coming with you.”
“Oh.” Brighton retrieves his phone again. “One sec.”
I spend the ride nervous that this is some kind of trap and Brighton keeps shooting me down and telling me to be more trusting. My anxiety has only grown stronger since getting my powers and the last time I trusted someone new he was killed because of me. I keep arguing with myself that Ma being alive isn’t some delusion, that Luna could be holding her hostage to use her as a tool later, but it’s damn near impossible to hold out hope for Ness. His very existence could upend his father’s entire campaign.
It takes us a couple of hours to reach Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn and we park a few blocks away from the First Nebula Lofthouse. Prudencia comes up with signals letting us know when it’s safe for us to follow her down the streets. She’s associated with us, but she fortunately isn’t famous like us, the Infinity Kings. Two men come out a building pushing a stroller and force us to hit a one-eighty when we see a group of women in athleisure dribbling a basketball our way. Brighton and I become suddenly interested in counting the blackened gum marks on the sidewalk like when we were kids until they pass. I miss the days where I didn’t have to wonder if strangers were going to celebrate or hate me.
Brighton and I get to the front of the building right as Prudencia comes out.
“Doorman talking to a nanny,” Prudencia says. We follow her around the corner and there’s a door by a dumpster. She telekinetically pulls it open. “Up we go.”
“Why did Tala have to be in the penthouse?” I ask.
“It’s only eighteen floors. I’ll see you up there,” Brighton says as his eyes glow like an eclipse. He blurs for a moment before freezing in place.
Prudencia has him bound with her power. “We’re all walking up together. If it is a trap, I don’t want you finding out alone.”
“You’re the boss,” Brighton says with a smile. This is some kind of game to him.
Once she lets him go, we all go up, mercifully not bumping into anyone along the way.
Brighton holds the door open at the top level. “This is going to be a lot more fun when we can all fly straight to the roof next time.”
If I can ever fly again.
Prudencia knocks on the only door and Maribelle answers in moments.
It’s been exactly a week since Maribelle last saw us at the meeting with Sunstar and Shine but the only person she regards now is Brighton with marvel in her eyes. “How are you feeling?”
“Stronger,” Brighton answers. It’s awkward watching him soak up this moment knowing that Prudencia is more than familiar that he had a poster of Maribelle in our bedroom. “Ready to work.”
“Let’s go.”
Maribelle leads us inside the loft, but we barely get to explore it before we go up one final flight of steps to the roof. There’s a young woman standing in the garden and petting the biggest phoenix I’ve ever seen up close. The phoenix could be safely mounted for flight and maybe even crush someone with one tackle. Judging by its yellow feathers I’m thinking it might be a breath spawn or a light howler. The former can explode on the spot to kill us all and the latter could strike us dead with lightning. I normally wouldn’t spiral over the different ways a phoenix might kill me, but I’m not counting on my specter presence to be welcomed by this Halo Knight. One glare from Tala confirms this. The phoenix cocks its head like it’s studying me. I wonder if it can sense the power that’s not supposed to be in me or Brighton.
“Tala, this is—”
“Who killed my parents?” Tala asks, cutting off Maribelle.
“The Blood Casters,” I say immediately.
“Which ones?”
I stand frozen on the spot. All the Halo Knights were wearing my masks and their complexions ranged. I share everything that I remember about that swift fight. There were five Halo Knights total wielding axes and swords and crossbows. One man was immediately killed by Dione before having her head cut off by a short woman. “Then June, this specter with ghost blood—I don’t know if Maribelle explained all of that—possessed some man. Nimuel, I think.” Tala’s eyes water at the mention of his name. “June forced him to kill two Haloes. I warned the woman that he was possessed and she said she was his wife. When June didn’t leave his body, the Halo told Nimuel she would see him in another life and stabbed him. But June escaped in time and then Stanton killed the woman.”
Tala is vibrating with anger.
“I’m sorry for your loss. They fought bravely,” I say.
She doesn’t seem to welcome my condolences. “We will always put our lives on the line for the birds of many lives.”
“Gravesend was supposed to be safe behind a vaulted shield, but my former boss traded her life for mine so he could get famous.”
I don’t tell Tala how I considered killing Gravesend myself, hoping it would make a difference during the ritual. I tense up reliving the moment Luna stabbed Gravesend and then me with the infinity-ender blade. I should’ve died at that church too.
