If she were avian, though, she wouldn’t have been a bird of prey. No, she was small and brown, like a malnourished sparrow; and though she’d lost some of the gauntness she’d possessed when I’d first met her months before, she was still sharp-featured, with lines of perpetual worry and fatigue webbing her eyes. The others assured me she’d always looked this way; that her son’s death last year had only accented what was already there. The lines were a product of knowing too much of fate’s design…and being able to do too little about it. I looked to Tekla for help, but it was clear we weren’t going to have any sisterhood moments right now. Her eyes were trained on me just as narrowly as our leader’s, and I swallowed hard as I looked down and picked some dried cement out from under my fingernails.
Okay, so it’d been stupid. My shoe was stuck in the boneyard’s perimeter, and while that could be taken for a mason’s mistake-if you didn’t look too closely-the backpack that’d half made it into the boneyard with me was clearly made of material, zippers, leather, and lacing. Apparently bits of it were showing on the outside of the boneyard wall as well, but the bigger problem was that its presence there had kept the barrier separating the sanctuary from the rest of the world from fully closing. Oops.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, but I was having trouble keeping the contriteness in my voice by this point. Warren heard it, which only furthered his tirade.
“…and to use a conduit of Light to purposely destroy a wall meant to protect your troop from the Shadow’s harm is not only irresponsible, but borders on the treasonous!”
“The barrier’s not destroyed,” Tekla said from her corner stool.
Now he whirled on her. “It’s compromised!”
“I was angry!” I said in my defense. “I just saw the cab through the dust and took aim. Besides, you cross over on foot all the time.”
“I follow the route set by Gregor. And I make sure the barrier’s closed behind me!”
“Enough.” Tekla stood and began walking toward me. I automatically shrank back. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her; I did. She was the troop’s Seer, and a bit off because of it, but she was powerful. So much so that her deep lavender aura was visible to me even with my diminished abilities. If I stared at her too long, her outline burned beneath my lids every time I blinked. I held my breath now, anticipating the worst. “I’ll work with the Archer on rebuilding the breach-agents should know how to repair walls if they’re going to tear them down.” I swallowed hard at the censure in her tone, looking away. “And then we’ll work on controlling her temper.”
My gaze swung back to her suspiciously.
Warren screwed up his face, just as perplexed. “That’s it?”
Tekla tilted her head at him. “It’s timely, don’t you think? There’s the maze in the boneyard representing the Tulpa’s labyrinth. And other walls that need to be constructed and deconstructed at will…”
Warren’s expression immediately cleared, and he smiled as he looked back at me. “The barrier…among other things.”
“Hey, I enjoy cryptic banter as much as the next girl,” I said with mock cheerfulness before letting my face fall. “But someone wanna clue me in here?”
Tekla turned her sharp gaze on me again. “You’re going to remain within the sanctuary until we’re sure you can’t be goaded into jeopardizing our troop’s security.”
“I haven’t-” I was about to say I hadn’t jeopardized anything, but I had. Never mind the wall…I’d let a Shadow initiate live in hopes she’d feed me more information about Joaquin’s whereabouts. I’d then met him in neutral territory the next day. Wait until Warren and Tekla found out about that.
“I haven’t hurt anyone,” I said instead, which was true. It just happened to include Regan, a mortal enemy. So I changed the subject. “And what about Chandra? She tried to tattoo skid marks on my chest.”
“Which you’d have recovered from.” Warren blew the issue off, and waved away my gaping protest. “Chandra’s going to be a different color than the rest of the human race thanks to your hijinks in the practice maze. I think that makes you two even.”
Sure, because a two-ton vehicle and a paintball were sooooo similar.
Warren read my thoughts and smiled thinly. “But what Tekla’s saying is this: the second sign of the Zodiac says that Shadow and Light will square off on a cursed battlefield. In the Zodiac mythology battlefield is often equated with playing field.”
“Yeah, ’cuz war’s just so much fun.”
Warren ignored me. “The maze out front is a mockup of the Tulpa’s labyrinth based on blueprints seized at Valhalla. We need someone to learn how to get to the center of that maze in record time, and this is the perfect time to train for it. The paranormal world is quiet, the Shadows have been in hiding since your accession-”
I snorted before I could help myself.
Warren froze. “What?”
I bit my lip, trying to keep my face straight. “Well, you don’t really think they’re in hiding, do you? Quivering in their shadowy little lair?”
“You know differently?” he asked shortly.
“No,” I said, because I didn’t. Not for sure. But Regan had hinted at some evil plan, so I did too. It eased my conscience a bit at having let her live. “But I doubt they’ve just given up wreaking chaos and destruction in favor of another hobby.”
“Oh, but they have. At least for the time being. It’s clear the Tulpa wants you to switch sides, so he’s pulled back, probably hoping to lull you into thinking he’s not all that bad, that they’re just like us.” He rolled his eyes, and Regan’s words again skittered through my mind. You think we’re wired differently than you, but it’s not true…we’re like you. Oblivious to my thoughts, Warren shot me a stubbled grin. “As long as the Zodiac is balanced-twelve of them, twelve of us-then there’s peace in the mortal world. That’s all I care about.”
It was true; Warren wasn’t one of those, myself included, who thought the best way to save humanity was to annihilate the Shadow side. No, he believed the entire Universe was one giant scale that needed to be kept in balance, that even he was just ballast to be positioned at a fixed place and time to keep his troop, his valley, and his mortals safe.
I gave up trying to argue with him on that point. “So an entire troop of habituated bad guys is going to stop causing mayhem and pain just because one dude wants to win me over?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t think so.” I muttered, shaking my head as he dropped into a swivel chair next to Tekla’s desk. “It feels like the calm before the storm to me. It feels like they’re coming after us.”
“And you have so much experience in these things, do you?” He leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his neck.
Now my voice was hard and loud. “Hey, I may be relatively new to this game of paranormal hide-and-seek, but I’ve spent my entire adulthood on the offense against danger and attack, and my gut is telling me something’s going to happen, and that we won’t know what it is until it’s too late.”
Warren gave his head a sharp jerk, causing his lank hair to sway against his shoulders. “It doesn’t work that way, Olivia. As long as our numbers are equal, there’s cosmic balance in the city. There’s no way they can attack us directly. We’re too strong.”
I had to admit it seemed far-fetched, even with Regan’s warning. How could they wipe us all out in one fell swoop? They had no leverage. We were stronger than we’d been in years.
Tekla, who’d returned to her perch and had been observing all this with a sort of detached scrutiny, cleared her throat. “Perhaps Olivia’s objections have more to do with a personal desire than any intuitive hunch.”