Page 52 of Snag
I eye the ashes that have replaced the pool of Reck’s blood. Even looking for it deliberately, I see no trace of the essence Bellamy used to fuel her teleportation spell. And the way she screamed…
Reck props himself up on one hand, following my gaze with a frown. “She … immolated herself? Just to get away from us?”
“The Authority has no jurisdiction over anything having to do with the Conduit,” I say.
“What?”
“There is no ‘us.’ ”
Reck flinches as if I’ve slapped him. But he quickly recovers, baring his teeth in a nasty grin as he slowly stands. “Keep fucking around in my business and you’re going to have to deal with me.”
Rought shifts as if to step between us, then checks himself.
“No,” I say. “You’re going to have to deal with me. Run that past your superiors and see where it gets you, Reck.”
He opens his mouth to continue arguing, but I turn my back on him and walk away. Rought lingers behind for a moment, but I don’t bother trying to hear what else passes between the brothers. Instead, I pull my phone out of my bag to fill Coda in on the new info we’ve stumbled upon. Stumbled through?
My first month of being the Conduit — the most powerful awry in the fucking world, according to a sneering Reck — isn’t going particularly smoothly. And I don’t have anyone to blame but myself, and the weird delay I’m operating within.
I still have all the same people to protect. Plus the mystery of my aunt’s death, even though technically I’m supposed to simply move forward from that without much ado. And now I’ve got a dire awry to quell — a designation that is completely unknown to me and therefore capable of even more chaos than a normal awry.
Though ‘normal’ and ‘awry’ really shouldn’t be used in the same sentence.
I textCoda as I wander out of the hotel lobby without paying much attention to my surroundings. It’s not like anyone can sneak up on me these days, even when I’m distracted. Beyond all the other revelations of the last ten minutes, all of which I dutifully report to Coda, the way that Bellamy reaches for and twists essence is still bothering me. It’s an entirely internal nagging, but it’s verging on a …knowing.
I pause, looking up from my phone and finding myself on the edge of a small parking lot at the side of the hotel.
My aunt would get obsessed about things too. Bits of history or some essence theory, and she’d lock herself away in her tower …
Dire mages are pure destruction incarnate. At least for the short time they wield power without self-combusting or being taken down by a stronger essence-wielder. Or, more likely, a collective of essence-wielders. But I’ve never come face-to-face with one and not had them turn away, abruptly and definitively, just at the sight of my eyes.
A dire awry, though …
Bellamy has restricted her power by only drawing it from her own blood or the life force of others …
My phone buzzes in my hand.
I’ve gotten distracted again. In the middle of a fucking thought. Whirling the problem, the quandary that is Bellamy around in my mind.
Why didn’t I intercede earlier?
Was I thrown by seeing Bellamy wearing my face and attempting to fuck Reck?
Was it the reveal of her awry designation, or her true face and blood-tie claims?
No. When I need to move, when I need to intercede, I always do. Without hesitation and even without a prompting from the universe. But I didn’t move this time. I asked questions.
I never ask questions.
I’ve also never had a knowing sneak up on me as it did with Precious, even though I alsoknowI wasn’t supposed to intercede in that moment at the cafe. I’ve done lots of things seemingly on a whim, like traveling to Tokyo three months before being called to rescue Kiki and the other young shifters from a trafficking ring.
But I’m the Conduit now … and my aunt used to get obsessed about things as well. Maybe there’s a lead-up to a full knowing, or a sensitivity that builds —
The two Authority agents formerly stationed at the entrance to the estate, Clara Wilson and Brett Shaw, are parked next to the truck that I thought Rought parked outside the Nail Bar salon. Someone apparently moved it while we were in the hotel, or while we were walking in this direction.
Maybe Grinder and Pinky dropped it off when they picked up DeVille and Precious?
I look down at my phone to find a text message from Coda. The first is an acknowledgment of the update I sent.
