Page 45 of Girl, Unseen

Another wave of dizziness hit. Worse this time. The world smeared like wet paint.

‘Okay.’ She fumbled for the radio. ‘Maybe we should call this one early.’

Think. She had to think. Emergency procedures existed for a reason. But which ones? The festival grounds lay somewhere ahead - or was it west? The controls swam before her eyes. Each breath came slower than the last. A small part of her brain, the part still clinging to twenty years of training, screamed that something was very wrong. Her hand wouldn't cooperate. The radio kept sliding sideways. Had it always been so hard to focus?

The last thermal had pushed them up another thousand feet. Storm King Mountain rose ahead like a gray giant, but the landmark meant nothing now. Emergency landing sites. She should remember them. Had memorized them. But the knowledge slipped away like water through her fingers.

The sun felt too bright. The sky is too blue. Even the wind seemed to whisper with too many voices. She tried to reach for the burner controls, but her arm moved like it belonged to someone else.

‘Control...’ The word came out mushy. ‘This is... this is Webster. I'm...’

What was she? The thought dissolved before she could catch it. Dark spots danced at the edges of her vision. Her knees buckled.

The last thing Tessa saw was her coffee thermos rolling across the basket floor. Then the sky reached down with gentle hands and pulled her into darkness.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

‘The Hermetic Order of the Quinta Essentia,’ Felix said. ‘It’s a… group. I was in them, but I’m not anymore.’

This had to be a dream, Ella thought. For years she’d been telling people that underground esoteric cults were urban legends dreamed up by people with too much time on their hands, but here she was, watching one materialize right in front of her. Maybe she never made it out of that barn fire in Oregon.

‘A cult? A religion? What is this so-calledgroup, exactly?’

‘Just that. A group of guys that got together. A brotherhood.’

‘How many members?’

‘Nine. Well, eight now.’

Luca abandoned his post by the wall and took the seat beside her. His curiosity had finally won out over his intimidation routine, and Ella didn't blame him. This was the kind of confession that demanded an audience. He asked, ‘Okay, talk us through it. First, how did you find this cult?’

‘It’s not a cult, and you don’t find them. They find you.’

Ella laughed. Exactly the kind of melodramatic response she’d expect from someone like this. She tapped Felix’s book. ‘Well,wefound them.’

‘Only because I made a mistake. I should have destroyed the book.’

‘How didyoujoin them?’

‘They found me from something I posted online last year. I wrote something about a conspiracy, how the FBI and CIA contaminate the skies, effectively messing up the natural order of the elements.’

Ella fought the urge to roll her eyes. People like this gave the government way too much credit. ‘First of all, some of our colleagues barely know how to save a PDF. We’re not poisoning the skies. How did this group findyou?’

A flinch rippled across Felix's face. ‘They sent me a message, then offered me a chance to join their brotherhood, providing I proved myself.’

Ella lingered on the wordbrotherhood.She’d studied enough group dynamics to know how this worked. Isolation. Indoctrination. The slowerosion of individual identity until the group became everything. She'd seen it in terrorist cells, street gangs, religious extremists.

And now, alchemy-obsessed cults.

She glanced at the photographs still strewn on the table. Suddenly, a few pieces clicked into place. ‘Prove yourself? By spray-painting walls? Slaughtering animals? Digging up graves?’

‘What? Yes. Well, sort of. Once you pass the trials, you’re in the brotherhood for life.’

‘The book.’ Luca prodded it with his finger. ‘What is this thing?’

‘Everything the Order believes is laid out in there. Or, what we were supposed to believe, anyway. I wasn’t too taken by it.’

‘And what exactly do this Order believe?’ Ella turned to her partner and saw the curiosity dripping off him. She could read his body language like a book - the slight lean forward, the intense focus. Anything involving the occult always brought out his inner X-Files fan.

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