Chapter 203: Chapter 203
Heather
I polished off my last crust and was starting to get up when a flash of light exploded.
Brent yanked me to his side and suddenly everyone was moving, taking defensive positions.
Cosette rocketed from the bathroom, fastest to react. "Show yourself."
The light slowly faded and when my pupils adjusted, a guy stood in front of our locked door. Tall and lithe, he wore tight pants, tall boots, and a fancy tunic. His long, white hair was clipped back and his cheekbones could’ve cut glass.
The fey guy from my vision. Which meant we were getting closer to the church.
I wasn’t sure if I was glad he was here or terrified of what that meant. "It’s you." The words were out before I could stop them.
Cosette spared me a withering glance and I winced. I was so going to pay for keeping that part of my vision secret. But she didn’t have enough attention for me right now.
"No. Go home, Van." She drew out the soft A in his name until it sounded like fawn.
"I will." Van reached out to her, palm up. "And you’ll be coming with me."
"Is that a command?" Cosette stilled, staring at his hand.
"A request. It’s too da—"
"I know it’s dangerous." Her shoulders relaxed as she let out a breath. "But I’m allowed to stay and clean up my mess. Go home before you get caught up in it."
"I won’t leave you here to..." Van’s voice trailed. Lightning-fast, he grabbed her wrist and yanked off the glove. "You’re injured."
Ugly black streaks spread up her hand. They were almost all the way to her wrist.
Shit. Why hadn’t she said anything?
"Are yo—" I was going to ask what we could do to help, but another flash of light nearly blinded me. Everyone lifted their hands to block their eyes.
When I peeked through my fingers, my breath caught in my throat. Van glowed like the sun as he gripped Cosette’s wrist. He radiated magic and my skin tingled—almost painfully—with it. His eyes burned bright silver.
Cosette’s jaw was clenched, but she wasn’t trying to pull away. Only, the longer he worked his magic, the more she started to glow. It was like pearly, white light shone from under her skin.
I’d always known she was hiding herself from us. She’d proved that the first time she pulled her sword out of thin air. Now she was casting off light, but I didn’t feel a hint of magic from her. Was that just how she was supposed to look?
"Enough." Cosette jerked back her hand and finally, the magic stopped.
"You can’t stay here." Van finally looked at the rest of us, and his lip curled a little at the sight of our room. I couldn’t blame him, because I wasn’t looking close enough to check, but I was pretty sure the brown stain on the wall was actual excrement.
Still, it said a lot that he was standing in the middle of a group of worked-up Weres and brujos and couldn’t care less about it. His silver eyes were all for Cosette.
She jammed her glove back on, covering the marks that hadn’t budged. "I’m staying."
"Coco." Van sighed. "It was easy to track your magic. Others will be able to find you."
Coco? Who knew Cosette had a nickname? And who did she think was after her? This was getting juicier than Mom’s favorite telenovela.
"I’m not likely to forget that, am I? Go home." Cosette pushed him toward the door.
"No." Van stood his ground. "I’ve found you and I’m staying. If you want me to leave, then leave with me."
Whoa. What was going on between them?
Whatever it was, I hoped Cosette would stay. We needed her, and if that meant Van had to stay too, then we’d book them their own shitty motel room. We’d take as many fey fighters as we could get at this point.
"Anyone else wish they had popcorn to watch this show with?" Serena whispered.
"Me," I whispered back just loud enough so the wolves could hear. "This is blowing my mind."
Cosette turned to glare over her shoulder. Whoops. I guessed I hadn’t been as quiet as I’d thought. She undid the chain on the door and nudged Van into the hall. "Let’s finish this outside."
He walked out without looking at us, and Cosette pulled the door closed behind them. We all settled back down, except for Serena, who stood to peek through the curtains. I was too exhausted to try to eavesdrop. I sank back against Brent and let his energy wash over me, spreading calm.
"Who do you think he is?" Serena whispered.
"I’m not sure." Claudia glanced at Lucas. He looked like he might know something about it. "But their auras were very similar. White and almost rainbow, although Cosette’s is a bit brighter."
Lucas sighed. "It’s not mine to tell her secrets. If you consider her a friend, you should be worrying more about that hand of hers."
I was worried about it. An injury from a demon had almost killed Raphael. Cosette was acting like she could handle it, but she also acted like she could handle everything.
This was one thing I was pretty sure even she shouldn’t be messing with. Hopefully she’d let us look at it and see if we could find some spells to help her. "I don’t know what’s up with her, but I saw her friend in my vision."
"You what?" Cosette’s voice from the doorway was like ice.
Right. She just had to come back at the right time...
There wasn’t much I could say to defend myself. "I’m sorry. At first I was worried you’d leave if you knew. But then, with everything else that happened, there just wasn’t a good time to bring it up again." I said the words, but they sounded like excuses, even to me. "We’re going to need you in that church if we want to survive. I’m going to need you."
Cosette glared, and I deserved every ounce of her anger.
"I am sorry," I said again, hoping to reinforce the sentiment, but it didn’t look like it was doing any good.
Her eyes narrowed at me. "I can’t decide if I’m pissed or impressed."
"Impressed?" How was that possible?
"You got what you wanted, right? Very fey of you."
Is that a compliment? I asked Brent. It didn’t feel like one.
Probably not. His voice rumbled through the bond, a little amused.
"I’m the last person who can complain about keeping secrets." Cosette sighed as she tugged her bag out of the pile of gear in the corner.
Claudia stood. "You’re leaving?"
I said a silent thank you to her. I wanted to ask, but I’d already gotten enough of Cosette’s wrath.
"For tonight." She let out a slow breath. "Van needs more convincing, but I’m going to stay and fight, so odds are he’ll stay and fight with me."
I swallowed the ’thank you’ that I wanted to give. "We really appreciate your help."
"Thank me by killing Luciana. That’s the only way this is all worth it." She slung her bag over her shoulder. Her normal humor came back as she took in the room with a smirk. "Also, I’ll be sleeping in a feather bed that smells like jasmine. I think karma has done its work here."
"Lucky," Serena murmured.
"We’ll reinforce your wards before we go." Cosette eased the door closed, but her voice carried through, way more chipper than it needed to be "Don’t let the bedbugs give you hepatitis."
Okay. Definitely not thanking her for that one.
"Well, that was awkward." Xander locked the door chain behind them, although it hadn’t done much to keep Van out.
"Do you think they’re romantic?" Claudia asked. "Or just friends?"
"It may be more complicated than that," Lucas said.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"We’re in contact with our local fey in Peru. All I’ll say is I’ve heard her name come up as a key player in the courts." I paused to let that sink in, but at this point I was more shocked that she actually let someone call her Coco and live.
"We should call Michael again," Donovan said. "Give him an update and check on the situation at the school."
I nodded. We’d expressly avoided the news. The fight against Luciana was only hours away, and we needed to stay focused. Still it was tempting. Donovan had been checking in with Mr. Langdon throughout the day.
Word was things weren’t pretty on campus. They’d managed to keep the police from storming the gates, but getting anyone to believe that the video girl was actually a demon wasn’t a cakewalk.
A moan from the TV broke the silence.
"Jaysus," Donovan yelled. "Change the channel already." He got up, dialing Mr. Langdon as he crossed into the adjoining room.
The laughter started off soft, and then we were hooting at the TV.
"They’re definitely having sex now," Adrian said, finally changing the channel.
"Just no more gagging noises. Please. I’m already worried how many showers it’s going to take to get the ick of this place off me," Claudia said.
As they kept bantering and flipping through the channels, I leaned against Brent, resting my head on his shoulder.
You okay? He asked.
Yeah. Tired, but okay. We have good friends.
He brushed my hair away from my forehead and placed a soft kiss there. Yeah. We do.
As I closed my eyes, I knew that we’d find Luciana tomorrow. One way or another, all of this would come to an end. And after, if I was lucky enough to live through it all, I was going to have years with my friends. With Brent.
That was motivation enough for me to keep going. To not give up.
I had too much to live for to lose it all now.
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