Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series) (46 page)

Cora set Brie down next to Pilot. "Hold onto her."

Clara continued to pound on the invisible wall. After several minutes, Cora firmly pulled her away.

Rykken and Thessa laid next to each other, both at various stages of unconsciousness, unreachable in more ways than one.

Pilot wrapped his arms around Brie, trying to comfort her. Sirena sat near him now, staring across the room at nothing.

"There are bits of glass all over the floor," she said quietly, brushing her hands on the jeans she was wearing. She looked at Pilot's forehead. "And you're bleeding."

Before Pilot could respond, Brie dug her fingers into Pilot's arms. "Kennedy," she gasped in between sobs. "She's hurt. I don't know if she made it."

Pilot's heart dropped. He let go of Brie, clasping his hands in his own lap. His mind spun with images of Kennedy, staring at him with vacant, dead eyes.

"Who?" he asked, though he didn't want to know the answer.

Brie told him anyway. She didn't look at Pilot when she finished talking; she just dragged herself to floor and curled up in a ball.

Sirena shot Pilot a warning look. "It was in self-defense," Sirena whispered so that only Pilot could hear. Sirena knelt to the floor, rubbing Brie's back, like one might rub a child's back at daycare during naptime.

Pilot repeated the words to himself, over and over again in his head.
Brie hurt Kennedy in self-defense.

Rykken is dying because Kennedy is a bad person.

Clara was talking to herself too. "Thessa, you don't have to do this," she whispered. Pilot didn't know what she was referring to, but he didn't have the energy to find out. He needed everything he had left to hold back the tears that were threatening to pour at any minute. And the anger. Because that was dangerously close to surfacing, and then where would he be?

Cora, who hadn't said anything, hadn't cried or tried to reach Thessa or bothered to comfort Brie, let go of her sister and made her way to Pilot. She knelt down in front of him, the light from the room surrounding her in a halo.

"Come with me," she said, grabbing his hand, cupping it gingerly in her own. "I know how to make this easier."

*****

Sirena rubbed Brie's back to comfort her. But Sirena didn't know, didn't understand what Brie really was—

a murderer, who had just killed one of her own kind to save her boyfriend. Rykken would probably die anyway, and Pilot... Brie didn't even want to think about Pilot. Instead, she focused on how much she hated Kennedy for involving her brother in the first place.

Brie didn't see Clara or Cora or Pilot anywhere. "What's happening to Rykken and Thessa?" she whispered to Sirena.

Sirena's expression didn't change, but there was a flicker of pain in her eyes. "She's trying to save him, like you tried. Only Thessa has lived for so long that there's a chance it might work."

Brie stared at a chip of glass on the floor, trying to process the information Sirena had given her.

A minute passed, maybe two. "When you put your hands over his wounds," Sirena said, "weren't you trying to perform a Cronus ritual?"

"No." Brie flicked the glass across the room. "I don't even know what that is." She hadn't tried to perform anything on Rykken—all she had tried to do when she touched him was lend him her transmutative healing abilities so he could heal faster. Was that what Sirena meant?

"I could have sworn—" Sirena blinked, shaking her head. "There is only one way to save someone's life when they are in the condition Rykken is in—the Cronus ritual, which allows a Hallow to sacrifice his or her own life in place of the person dying."

"Oh," Brie said. "Thessa is sacrificing her life for Rykken's?" Brie was surprised by the tone in her own voice, so dull and unfeeling. She wondered if she was so far deep into shock that nothing, not even one of her friends dying, fazed her anymore.

"I don't know Brie—either way, we can't do anything for them right now." Sirena pulled Brie into an upright position. "Now that Pilot's gone, what really happened with Kennedy?"

"I killed her," Brie said, finally feeling the weight of her own words. "I thought she was going to kill Rykken. The emerald stone from the pendant had a sharpened tip, so I threw it at her back. I've never even thrown a knife before—where would I have? I have terrible aim normally. But this was just like when I was playing volleyball—I could control where it was going. Sirena, I hit her in the heart." Brie felt an onslaught of tears coming on. "She's dead, Sirena. Dead." Brie buried her face in her knees.

"It's not your fault," Sirena said, reverting automatically to stroking Brie's back. She sounded worried.

"It was in self-defense."

Brie knew in her heart, though, that it
was
her fault. She could have just wounded Kennedy to escape, but blind hatred had taken over. When she held that emerald dagger in her hands, she wanted Kennedy dead. She acted on those impulses, and no matter what Sirena or anyone else said, Brie knew the truth. The circumstances of Kennedy's death were irrelevant if Brie's intention had been to kill her in the first place.

The permanence of the murder seeped into her, not unlike the depression that had blanketed her just months earlier. Kennedy knew how to get to her, and she'd risen to every bait Kennedy had tempted her with; but what if Kennedy was right? What if Brie
was
on the wrong side? What if she had just made the worst mistake of her life?

Sirena left Brie to her thoughts, which were running wild. The uncomfortable knowledge that she was a Trinity among Hallows dangled over her for several minutes, until there wasn't any point in pushing off the conversation any longer. "You know I'm a Trinity," Brie said. "Why are you still trying to protect me if I'm a Trinity?"

"Because," Sirena said immediately, "we can find the stones. We can fix you." Sirena's answer came too fast, like she was trying to convince herself. The tone in Sirena's voice also bothered Brie—like Brie simply had an ear infection that required antibiotics. To be fixed or cured meant that there was something dangerously wrong with Brie in the first place. But Brie knew that already.

"Sirena, I
killed
someone. I'm a murderer."

"Listen to me." Sirena faced Brie and grabbed her shoulders. "You have to pull yourself together. None of this is a game. Having powers seems fun at first, but they are a liability, not a blessing. In the Hallow world, there are struggles for power at every level. There is treachery. There is death. This will not be the last time you're faced with a difficult choice." Sirena sighed. "I thought you understood what you were getting into."

Brie tucked her legs into her body. She felt small, but not small enough. "Do you think my mom knew what she was facing before she died?"

Sirena wrapped her arms around Brie. "Your mother was desperate and she didn't know who to trust. I wish she had trusted me, just like I wish you had trusted me earlier this evening. She shouldn't have sought the stones on her own, but her intentions for wanting them were sound. She was trying to save you. And I'm going to try too."

"What about the other Hallows?" Brie whispered.

"They won't bother us," Sirena said. "Clara convinced Thessa that she should wait to tell the New Order anything until we understand what is happening to you. But I wasn't going to turn you in anyway. I was going to run with you."

Sirena's words took Brie's full-blown panic down a level. She wasn't completely alone—not yet anyway.

"I'm sorry for not trusting you."

"I don't blame you—I'm the one who told you to trust Thessa, and clearly, we couldn't. Besides, you might have saved Rykken by being in the right place at the right time."

"Or I might have guaranteed his death."

"I don't think so, Brie."

Brie knew Sirena was just trying to calm her down; Sirena couldn't see what a terrible person Brie was. If she had just thought through some of her actions, or just paid more attention to where Rykken was

—there were a million other scenarios. She could have kept everyone safe, and she could have avoided a confrontation with Kennedy. She could have avoided killing someone that her brother cared about...

Brie mustered the courage to ask her next question. "Will Pilot forgive me for killing Kennedy?"

"Are you sure Kennedy is dead, Brie? She's strong—it's possible that she could heal just fine from a dagger to her heart. Even normal earthlies sometimes do."

"It wasn't just a dagger to her heart," Brie said. "I went after her. I pulled the dagger out of her chest and I stabbed her. Repeatedly. Blood all over my hands..." Brie's thoughts drifted to something unexpected—Adele wearing silk, red gloves the color of blood to mimic Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Sirena raised her eyebrows; her sharp intake of breath broke through Brie's thoughts. "Well, you'll have everyone in Silver Smoke after you if you really did kill her."

"And if I didn't," Brie said, "I'll just have her after me."

Sirena and Brie looked at each other; Sirena's raisin-colored eyes reflected the conclusion that Brie herself had just come to.

"So you understand why we can't stay here, right?"

Brie did understand. They had been planning to leave anyway; but now that Brie understood the stakes, she was truly terrified. How much more was she going to lose, and would she lose herself in the process?

"Brie, there's something else you should know," Sirena whispered with great restraint. "There's a reason why you have powers and Pilot doesn't. Pilot is an earthlie because Michael doesn't allow sons to be born with his blood. Do you understand? There are
no
sons of Michael."

"Why not?"

"I don't know," Sirena admitted. "I know there have been before, and every time something horrible has happened. Not just to the son of Michael, but to world." Brie opened her mouth, but Sirena cut her off. "That isn't the point," she said. "The point is that the opposite is true in the Nephilim world with daughters of Luci."

Brie let the words sink in for a moment. "And I'm a daughter of Luci?"

"Not a traditional one, but yes, by definition..."

"And the fact that I exist means something really bad is going to happen."

"Maybe," Sirena admitted. "Thessa certainly thinks so." Sirena shook her head in disbelief. "All this time, we've been worried about if Pilot could ever be a true son of Michael, double and triple checking that he will never have powers—"

"Because I stole his powers from him at birth," Brie said.

"I don't know if that's true," Sirena said.

"It is," Brie said. "Kennedy told me. She figured all of this out faster than the Hallows did." Brie heard the accusation in her own voice, but Sirena didn't respond to the bait.

"You can't believe everything Kennedy says."

"I guess not," Brie said. "But Kennedy hasn't lied to me yet."

When Rykken woke up, he was lying on a small, full-sized bed, clothed in flowing jade materials as soft as silk. He sat up, patting his chest and face with his hands. His skin was perfectly intact. There was no blood—no remnants of his last encounter with Kennedy.

The room was large but minimal, with few pieces of furniture—the bed he was lying in, with heavy blue drapes hanging from the ceiling, and a large, old trunk against the wall. The floors were covered in handmade tile the color of rust, and the ceiling was adorned with ornate wood-carvings. The walls were covered ceiling to floor in faded murals of angel-like men and women in long robes. Their wings, bodies, and clothing tangled around each other in a large, unending battle.

Rykken heard footsteps at the door and looked up, hoping it was Brie. But the only person to greet him was Thessa.

"Where's Brie?" he asked.

Thessa gave him a long, cold stare. "Alive," she said dryly.

Rykken considered her word choice. "Does that mean I'm dead?" he asked.

"No," Thessa said. "Not yet."

Thessa sat delicately on Rykken's four-poster bed. She looked like a Grecian princess, with white robes and large, gold jewelry. She wore an encrusted band of gold and jewels on her head, and her brown hair fell in rigid curls over her left shoulder.

"Where are we?" Rykken asked.

"We're in my mistress' quarters," Thessa said, her lips curling into a small smile. "My grandfather was King Phillip the second of Macedon. He was a Hallow, of course—most of the royalty that you read about in the history books are either Hallow or Nephilim, and most of the wars that you read about are between the Hallows and the Nephilim.

"You were born in ancient Greece?" Rykken struggled to keep the surprise out of his voice, but he couldn't believe it—Thessa was over two thousands years old.

Thessa's grin bloomed at his realization. "King Phillip's famous son was Alexander the Great. He had no brothers or sisters, which was unusual, as most Hallows are born in sets of twins. King Phillip later had a child with another Hallow—my mom. She was Alexander the Great's half-sister, young enough to be his daughter, almost.

"Her name was Thessalonike and when Alexander was murdered, she became the wife of his successor, Cassander. Cassander was utterly non-Hallow, with no divine blood running through him, but Thessalonike would have been executed with the rest of Alexander's family without the marriage in place. She had two children with Cassander named Phillip and Antipater, named after her father and Cassander's father, respectively. She later had twins with another man, a Hallow. She named them Alexander, for her brother, and Thessalonike, after herself. As the years went on, I shortened my name to more modern versions—Nikki, Tessa, Thessa, or Theresa, depending on where I lived.

My father was executed almost immediately and the incident was hidden from the public. The kingdom was simply told that we were Cassander's children. I stayed out of the public view as my mother had when she was young—she felt Cassander would kill me on sight if he saw me as any sort of threat. My mother wanted to ensure a Hallow was named king, and I was her back-up plan, to repeat her choices if her first plan failed. Meanwhile, Cassander died and my brother was installed to the throne with Cassander's oldest son, Phillip.