Page 80 of Siege of Shadows

“Can’t be trusted,” Naomi finished quietly. She kept her expression calm as she looked up at me, but she couldn’t bury the urgency in her eyes.

I frowned, studying her carefully. “Who are you?”

Her features were stone as she answered. “A member of the High Council of the Sect,” she said. “From one of the so-called Seven Houses.”

“Seven Houses...” I pressed my back against the door. A member of the Council. Suddenly, I realized why her voice sounded familiar. She’d spoken that day in the cathedral when Blackwell had made me pledge allegiance to a broken institution on my knees like a servant. Hers was the only voice of reason, of kindness, among those that filled the hall with jeers.

“So your husband’s the director of a Sect division while you’re from some family dynasty of Council members?” With one director son and another son who was a murderer. A derisive laugh almost escaped my throat. Interesting family.

“No. There’s no dynasty,” Naomi corrected. “The ‘Seven Houses’ moniker is a red herring for secrecy’s sake. Council members are elected into their positions, though there are some—very few—exceptions....”

Naomi twisted her wedding band around her middle finger as if by habit. “Something is happening... within the Council and within the Sect. Saul, the terrorist. Those soldiers. They’re all a part of it. That woman Jessie was right. Something terrible is going to happen. I can feel it.” She looked at me. “And you girls, you Effigies. You have to help me stop it.”

My mouth dried, and my body began trembling. I didn’t want to show how scared I was, but I couldn’t stop my voice from shaking when I asked, “How?”

“Not here.” She flicked her head toward the window behind me. An agent had just walked out of the front doors of Blackwell’s mansion holding a set of car keys. “We can’t use phones, either. It’s too dangerous. I bought Natalya’s home in Madrid. Nobody knows, not even my husband. In exactly four days at sundown, meet me there, but make sure you’re alone. I’ll tell you everything. I’m sure you’ve been waiting too, haven’t you? For the truth.”

The truth. Yes. Ever since I first saw Natalya die in front of me. Ever since her parents warned me against the Sect in Argentina. If I had any chance in hell of stopping Saul for good, I needed to know how. But remembering the anguish crushing Natalya from the inside, remembering her pain as she stared at the woman through my eyes. It was the pain of betrayal.

“How do I know I can trustyou?”

“I understand your hesitation.” Naomi must have seen my hesitation. “And it’s up to you to decide one way or another. I’m just afraid this will all go too far before we can stop it. But before you go”—her hand firmly seized mine the moment I moved for the door—“there’s one thing I need to tell you. I want to be honest with you before you choose to move forward with this.”

“What is it?”

The driver came closer.

“Natalya’s death... My son was just the gun. And he... he is who he is because of the sins of his parents. Because I was too weak to protect him.” Naomi’s features pinched as she struggled against a sudden well of tears that never fell. She blinked them away. “He was the gun. But a trigger can’t pull itself.”

There was no hesitation as she stared back at me, as she held me in place with little more than a confession.

“Though I didn’t order her death, Natalya’s blood is on my hands.” Her words hung in the silent air. I hadn’t realized my mouth was open until I heard my own breath shuddering out of me. “Knowing that, if you still want to stop Saul, come and find me in Madrid.”

I opened my door the moment the driver arrived. And I watched quietly as Naomi’s car took her from the estate into the dead of night.

PART TWO

All around the house is the jet-black night;

It stares through the window-pane;

It crawls in the corners, hiding from the light,

And it moves with the moving flame.

Now my little heart goes a-beating like a drum,

With the breath of the Bogie in my hair;

And all around the candle and the crooked shadows come,

And go marching along up the stair.

The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp,

The shadow of the child that goes to bed—

All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp,

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