“If they do, they generally ask first.” They ask with their vote, when they join the church. They don’t ask for their lives to be sideswiped by imagined beings on-and here I looked at the splitting sky-a literal power trip. There wasn’t much further to go on this one. “I find myself curious about something, though.”
“Yes, darling daughter?”
“If you’re not going to kill me-” I amended the statement when he raised his brows. “-right now, I mean.” He nodded for me to continue. “Because you don’t want my chi to unite again in my changeling, thereby healing the Zodiac, bringing the fourth sign to life, recording Skamar’s name and giving her all the power swirling above in that sky-”
“One little death. So many repercussions.”
“Exactly,” I said, shortly. “So why’d you kidnap Jasmine?”
“Kidnapping is such a harsh word. I’m merely keeping her safe.”
He meant away from me, just in case I decided to take my chi back by force. “But you can’t touch a changeling.”
“No, but she’s only half. The other half?” He licked moisture from his bottom lip. “Fair game, same as you.”
I clenched my teeth. “Where is she?”
He paused, then jerked his head at the tunnels…and the pipeline that was flooding more than a foot a minute. Blood drained to my toes. If a thirteen-year-old girl was in there, the rushing water would already surround her. I looked up. “She’ll drown.” And she’d do it before this sky had completed its tumultuous belch.
“Have faith, dear. I’ve prepared better than that.” He smiled grimly. “She’s high up in an alcove, quite close to Midheaven, actually. Of course, knowing of your little connection, I had to make her go to sleep for a while…but she should be coming around just in time…”
He smiled, and left the sentence unfinished. To die.
And she was tucked high, because if she drowned before the sky fell, my chi would be reunited in my body. Then the fourth sign of the Zodiac would come to life, Skamar would gain her recorded name…the Tulpa would be defeated. If not, it would all go the Tulpa’s way.
But either way, Jasmine would die.
I thought of what she must be going through right now, how small and cold and utterly terrified she must be. The Tulpa looked at me, face devoid of guilt. “Now don’t look so shocked. You’re the one who gave me the idea.”
After I’d been found hiding from him in the cutout after my first return from Midheaven.
I turned to Warren. “We have to save her.”
He had the nerve to roll his eyes. “Jo. You’re the Kairos.”
That was it? That was his explanation? “I know,” I said through clenched teeth. No one would let me forget.
He stared at me. “Then let me remind you what that means. The prophesy of the Kairos is that it will forever elevate one side of the Zodiac over the other. Good over evil.”
“Not necessarily,” the Tulpa sang, ever the optimist.
“So I care about you above all else, and yes, that includes Jasmine.”
“We can’t stand here and do nothing,” I said. “She’s a baby!”
“And you,” he said, putting his hands on my shoulders while water rushed past our knees, “are a wild rosebush that needs to be pruned back and strengthened.”
I’m a person.
You’re a weapon.
Warren looked into my eyes with the fervor of televangelists and politicians, his fingers digging into my skin. “I will provide the environment and nutrients you need to bloom, but I also hold the shears, and I will not hesitate to cut off all the branches and suckers that threaten to weaken you.”
Like Hunter. Like Ben. Like a mortal we were sworn to protect. A child.
I looked at him then, and wondered if he’d forever run off everyone I depended upon and loved. For the first time, I also wondered if he was the one keeping me apart from my mother. I wondered if I professed my love for him, if he’d simply go away. Because that one might be worth a shot.
“If you don’t help her, you’re just as guilty as he is.”
“No, I didn’t do that. Besides, don’t you see, Archer?” He leaned forward slightly. “I’m putting you above all of us. Including myself.”
Always put others above yourself.
Frowning, shaking my head a little, I turned the thought over in my mind. Xavier had been the first person to say that to me, and at the time I’d thought him delirious with guilt and fatigue. But, I thought, looking back at the Tulpa, the second person to say it was Solange. Though a Shadow, she’d once been of this world too.
Put her, always, above yourself.
I glanced up at the sky as the downpour began to beat at my skin in earnest, and swayed as the water rose past my knees. It might already be too late, but if I found Jasmine quickly, if she could be revived, if she knew how to swim, if I just acted…
No. If I acted like the Kairos.
Warren read my thoughts as clearly as if I’d spoken aloud. “No, Joanna.” He used my real name even though it was pounding hard now and hearing was limited. The Tulpa leaned forward in the downpour, straining. “It’s already flooding. She’s just…”
“She’s what, Warren?” I said, turning to face him fully, not caring if the Tulpa heard or not. I wanted to hear him say it. No, I corrected myself, I wanted him to hear how it sounded when he said it. “She’s what?”
Warren clenched his teeth, rain rolling down his craggy face like tears that started at his skull. “It’s either her, or there will be thousands dead. We need to save ourselves. In light of that…what’s one person?”
“No. We need to save everyone we can…starting with her.”
Warren shook his head. “You’ve got to choose your battles, Archer. Haven’t you learned that by now?”
But if this wasn’t my battle, what was?
I stepped away from Warren until we were all an equal distance apart. He shifted, but the Tulpa inched toward me, recapturing his attention. I looked at the two leaders of the underworld, one cocooned beneath an umbrella, the other sodden in a battered trench, and in the thunderous roll of ball lightning-just for a moment-I couldn’t tell one from the other.
I’m a person.
You’re a weapon.
“Hey, Warren.”
He was looking at the Tulpa. “What?”
“Warren,” I said, more sharply. He jerked his head, eyes fixed on my birth father.
I sighed, and whispered, “Warren.”
This time he looked. I smiled. “Boom.”
And I bolted.
25
It was impossible to keep my feet beneath me, so I rode the filthy, rushing waves, the raging current easily whisking me into the dark. I was shocked at how loud the water was inside, and by how many other things were swept away with me; tires, wood planks, unlucky animals, discarded clothing, even sheet metal, which banged against my torso and thighs as I was whipped around and, every so often, pulled under. Flash floods were living things, fierce animals given temporary animation, but if I didn’t get to Jasmine before the power fueling this storm fell, then the heavens would fall with it, and the Tulpa would win all. There was little I could do for the city at large, but I could begin with the girl who’d started it all.
Put her, always, above yourself.
“Jasmine!” My voice echoed along the widened corridor, slipping along unlikely corners even the most sadistic of city planners wouldn’t have dreamed up. I was in the belly of the paranormal pipeline now, and though the rushing water would keep a mortal from hearing my call, I was hoping our shared chi would enable Jasmine to hear me, and give her enough strength to answer in return. I listened, but only heard the sky scream outside.