Did Rose count as a Behaim, now?
What would I have thought, weeks ago, when all this started, if I’d known I’d ask myself that question?
Couldn’t pick a fight, not with Alister potentially being involved. He’d know, and all the trouble I went to in order to attack from another angle would be wasted. Turned on me, even.
I bit my tongue and continued my approach by the most direct means.
Up the driveway. Much as I’d approached, back when it all started, for grandmother’s inheritance.
All of this was a dark inversion of what had been.
My friends were there, on the porch, behind Rose.
The family was together, for lack of a better word. Our parents weren’t here, but I couldn’t imagine they would be. Peter, Christoff, Roxanne, Ellie, and Kathryn were there, all the same.
“Your timing is inconvenient,” Alister declared.
I spread my arms. “That’s just who I am.”
“Yes,” he said. “And look at you. You’ve made friends.”
I glanced back at the other Others.
When I looked back at the group, without meaning to, I met Rose’s eyes.
Her expression was stone cold, but I saw the lights that Green Eyes had talked about. I could sense the fear.
“We just happened to cross paths. Thanks to you,” I said.
“I only had a small role in it,” Alister replied. “Satyrs and neutral monsters. Odd, how they’re gravitating toward you, isn’t it? How you’re doing so well, and how some Others have noticed they’re stronger?”
“You’re not taking credit, are you?” I asked.
He scoffed a little.
“Trust me,” he replied, his voice quiet, but carrying. “I wouldn’t be laughing if I were responsible.”
Was he killing time? Trying to bide time until sunrise?
I glanced at my cousins.
How was I supposed to get them away from the rest of the group?
Hey, get away from that safe, secure shelter, and come with us monsters.
Alister toyed with his deck of cards.
Off to the side, the faceless woman reached down to Green Eyes’ head.
I tensed, turning.
But it was only a stroke of the hair. Green Eyes looked shocked at first, then looked up and smiled.
The faceless woman dropped down to a crouch, and withdrew a comb. She used it to get the one bad tangle from earlier out of Green Eyes’ hair.
I wasn’t happy, given the proximity between Green Eyes and the faceless woman, but what was I supposed to do about it? It wasn’t like I could make the faceless woman swear to something, given how she didn’t have a mouth. I couldn’t shake her hand, either. That was a trap unto itself.
Be careful, I willed Green Eyes.
I turned my attention back to Alister.
“You’re battle hardened, driven by the bell. I can see the wariness in your eyes, the tension in your body.” Alister said. “Rose told me just about everything. You were made to be a warrior. You settled into the role with remarkable ease.”
“I’m not sure what you’re insinuating. Because you’re doing an awful lot of insinuating right now,” I said.
“You’re inclined toward action. Right now, you’re itching to move, to carry out the next goal. It’s like a workaholic that keeps moving because if he stops, he realizes how empty he truly is. You can’t afford self reflection. But try to relax, all the same. I’m not going to fight you, unless you start a fight.”
I didn’t move a muscle.
“It’s like when you get caught in an undertow,” he remarked. “You can’t swim for shore. The current has too much pull. The tides favor you, right this minute. Sandra tried to go against you, I won’t make that same mistake. I’d rather go laterally.”
“Laterally.”
“You came here with a goal in mind,” Alister said.
I nodded. He could have guessed that much without being able to see the future.
“To move this along, I’d like to ask what the goal was. I can find out, but we’ve only got a few minutes before sunrise starts, and I’d rather act before then.”
“Destroying the reserve of power the Behaims set aside. What you accumulated over generations,” I said.
He smiled. “Well, that’s good.”
I frowned a little.
“No,” Evan piped up. “That’s not good at all. You’ve gone screwy in the head. Rose, he’s gone screwy in the head. You’ve married a lunatic.”
“Alister and I talked about this,” Rose said, her expression grim. “Hear him out.”
Every part of me was wanting to respond. To confront them, to ask why Rose was being so reserved, so scared. Ask why Alister was so smug. To talk to my friends. To make a plea to my cousins.
Even if I wasn’t sure how I’d word any of it.
“Sure,” I said, instead.
Alister held up one hand. A ring gleamed there, and it was the wrong hand to be his engagement ring.
“Behaim family crest. Knight’s helm above a kite shield bearing the Fleur-de-Lis. The ring isn’t the well of power we’ve accumulated, but it’s the key to accessing that well. If it’s destroyed, the Behaims won’t be able to access the well for a few generations, until we figure out a way to undo the damage or get at the reserve from a different angle. It’s also the symbol of my office as the leader.”
“Fancy that,” I said.
“It’s funny, but I’m the first person that’s been able to wear the damn thing on anything but a pinky finger, for a long time. My predecessors tended to wear it on a chain around their neck. Thick fingers. But I digress. The benefit of being a very old, important object is that it has very strong ties to the family. If the owner dies and is lost, the ring has its way of finding us again. Only a very powerful being or a specific scenario would be able to keep the ring from making a migration to the display case in Laird’s old house. The power of connections, connections strong enough that the Duchamps would have a hard time gaming this little system here.”
He pulled it from his finger, then held it up, peering at me through the hole.
“What are you doing, Alister?” I asked.
“Not fighting against the current,” he responded. “Sorry for all the water analogies, but you would not believe how many times I heard the ‘time is a river’ thing, growing up.”
He handed the ring to Rose.
“Connections,” Alister said.
Rose gripped the ring hard, her knuckles going white.
“Rose,” he said, nudging her. “We talked about this. If you don’t… I’ll look silly.”
“You trust him more than I do,” she said, her voice low. I wasn’t sure, but I suspected she didn’t realize I could hear her from where I stood.
He shot her a look.
She scowled a bit.
Then she threw the ring.
I had to take a step back, which was hard considering that I was standing on a slight incline, and reach out to catch the thing.
“There,” Alister said. He smiled.
“I’m imagining about twenty different ways Laird would kill you right now,” the female relative standing beside him commented.
I looked down at the ring.
“A trick?” I asked.
Alister shook his head.
“You already depleted the reserve of power?”