Page 10 of Cast in Shadow
“TheEmerson?” Dennis asked.
Shayla inched closer, studying me with a hint of concern coloring her hazel eyes.
“The one and only.” I shook my head, still not fully believing it myself, then filled them in on the pertinent details of my failed mission. By the end of it, Shayla had two dozen windows open on the smartboard, researching the dead coven while Dennis and Nguyen worked on their laptops.
“Wait!” I jumped at Shayla’s excited scream. “I’ve got something. Jesus, it’s itty bitty. Just a little blurb in a backwater newspaper.” She expanded the window so it filled the screen.
TWELVE WOMEN DIE FROM CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING AT CHURCH LOCK-IN.
“Well, that’s one way to cover it up,” Nguyen said.
“Their bodies must have looked normal enough to get away with that explanation,” Shayla said with her back still to us. The article was brief, and it only contained images of five of the women. “They listed the names.” She started reading them aloud as the other two typed.
I didn’t bother listening to the roll call because I was trying to pull things together in my own way. Computers andsmartboards were necessary investments if we were going to operate in the modern world, but I didn’t have the kind of skill with them that the others did. Having me jump in on the search would just be duplicating their efforts, only a lot slower.
What I could do was read the energy in the room. I could feel the flow and pulse of their respective magic, and at least one thing I knew for sure was that none of my closest people had betrayed me.
A little of the tension in my chest eased with the knowledge, but the question of how no one on my team had been alerted to Emerson’s presence still lingered. “Do we have any idea how Emerson ended up in Brynworth without tripping any alarms?”
The click of laptop keys stalled, and they all looked at me again. “The last update I received was that he was in Italy tracking a wraith. That was three weeks ago,” Nguyen offered.
I couldn’t be too upset, could I? Sometimes we would go months without getting a ping on that particular member of the Brethren, but something about it still didn’t feel right.
“What about Megan?” Dennis asked. “Do you know what happened to her after everything?”
“I never circled back to the festival. Things were already dying down by the time I got away from him, but whatever she set out to do tonight, I’m sure she got it done.” I turned to Nguyen. “Speaking of which, my Jeep is still out there. Send out whoever is on watch to pick it up.”
He offered me a quick nod.
“Did he follow you?” Shayla asked, coming around the table and perching herself on the edge by me.
“I don’t think so, but I took extra precautions to be safe.”
“Are you okay?” She reached out and brushed a strand of dark hair out of my face. “Like, really okay?”
Was she worried about me? I was the one who was supposed to do the worrying between us. Especially when her pale skinwas peeking through the knees of her torn white jeans and her light pink t-shirt with a faded Jolly Roger on the front hung a little too loose on her shoulders.
I opened my mouth to ask if she’d been forgetting to eat again but closed it before the question slipped out. That was a conversation we could have in private. So, I just nodded. She knew more about my connection to Emerson than anyone, but not the whole truth.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I lied.
“Was he surprised to see you?” she asked.
Was he? I replayed the night again in my head. “Maybe a little.”
“Then it probably wasn’t an ambush,” Dennis offered, as if that made it any easier.
“Either way, he knows I’m here.” I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. “And that I’m part of Lexa.”
Fucking Emerson Bradach. I should have known I’d never truly escape him.
If I’d lived a normal human life, maybe I could have avoided him. But my magic had changed, and one of those changes was a very slow aging process. The longer I lived, the more inevitable our reunion became. Especially since Emerson had the benefit of being immortal. He and the Brethren were truly unkillable. They could be beheaded, dismembered, burned to ash, and they would come back. It took time, sure, but they were a constant in the universe.
Eternal.
I let my feet fall from the edge of the table as another thought slipped through my frustration. “He said something else.” I stood and headed for the smartboard.
Knowing I was part of Lexa meant Emerson might try to use me to take down the organization, and from the way he’dsounded—trying to warn me off—taking us down was already on the Brethren’s to-do list.
