Prophecy (Residue Series #4) (24 page)

I waited for her to respond and when she didn’t I clued in that she was doing the same. “I think we’re going to pass,” I replied.

“Suit yourself,” he said with a shrug.

When the last dish was dried, we turned and found them engrossed in their game.

“I think we’ll head upstairs,” I announced.

“Yeah,” Jocelyn said, yawning. Whether real or bogus, it was convincing.

Rufus and Felix gave us perceptive glances while the rest kept their focus on the board. We made it to the base of the stairs before Ezra realized she’d forgotten something.

“Keep the door open,” she warned. “You know the rules.”

“Yes, we do.”

Of course, I didn’t mention we’d been breaking them nightly.

Already knowing what I was going to do to Jocelyn once we were alone, a tightening of expectation took hold of my stomach. On the first step up the stairs, I had already started yearning for the ability to levitate, to whip Jocelyn off her feet and up to the second floor before Ezra had bowed her head to the game board again.

Of course that was wishful thinking. I knew this when the back door opened and Ezra called out to us again, “Jameson? Jocelyn?”

And it made me drop my head and groan. “No…,” I muttered.

Jocelyn giggled behind me and I looked back. “You heard that?”

She smiled and nodded.

By that point, the visitor was at the end of the hallway. It was Isabella, who didn’t bother with a greeting to anyone in the kitchen, so I knew her news was urgent.

Only then did my disappointment at her interruption fade.

“They’re doing it again,” she said, coming to a halt, her face pinched with tension. “The Dissidents are attacking the Vires.”

“You were right,” Jocelyn muttered, gazing at me.

“Where?” I said, turning full circle.

“Sixth Province. Eastern China. The Pinggu District. It seems they’ve set their sights on Beijing.”

Heading for the kitchen, I called out, “Eran? Maggie?”

“You’re going to need more than two in your group,” Isabella cautioned.

“Why?” I asked, pausing in the hallway.

“Because they’ve combined their forces.”

My body was suddenly immobile, feeling like I’d ran into a brick wall. Numbingly, I began processing this information.

Sartorius was getting his wish. The Sevens were following his plan perfectly. As we eliminated his associates, the fighting force – the one he would claim when he remained the sole Seven alive – grew larger with each death. Kalisha had been correct. Forces were uniting as The Sevens fell, and it was unnerving to watch it unfold. This meant they would know to expect us, which made Estelle’s uniforms all that more important.

I nodded to Isabella to show my understanding. “Let’s hope Estelle has those uniforms finished,” I muttered. “We’re going to need them.”

“Behold!” Estelle spun into the kitchen, melodically singing her own praises. “At your request, sir, the most beautiful renderings of a Vire uniform in history!”

I was under the impression that Isabella had come alone, so I was surprised to see her, and in such a giddy mood. My first thought was to remind her that people were dying, but somehow I don’t think that would have put much of a dent in her reality.

She pinned the uniform to her shoulders by the tips of her fingers as she swept around the room. It flew off her torso like a wave of black until her rotations came to a stop in the center of the room, to promote her achievement. She was in luck. No one in the room missed her entrance.

“Thank you, Estelle,” I said, strolling into the kitchen and taking the canvas bag next to the door where she’d left it.

I noticed the rest of our families clogging the doorway outside and ushered them in.

“There are three, just as you asked,” Estelle announced.

“And which three will be wearing them?” Jocelyn inquired on behalf of everyone filtering into the small kitchen.

I gave her a look that told her I was weary of her insistence in participating, but she only folded her arms in opposition.

“Maggie,” I said, attracting her attention. “You’ll need to forgo your black suit this time.”

She stared back at me, hesitantly. “Because?”

“Because you’ll be wearing a Vire uniform instead,” I explained, passing Estelle’s handiwork to her.

Her lip curled up in disgust.

“Trust me,” I told her, “I know exactly how you feel.”

“Why this?”

“Again…you’ll need to trust me.”

“I’m fighting on the good side,” she reminded me.

“Which is precisely why we need to be wearing this if we’re going to reach Caligula.”

“Caligula?” Eran asked.

“The sovereign leader of that province. I’m assuming he’ll be there this time.”

“What makes you think so?” asked Spencer, the more cerebral of the Weatherfords, as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

“It’s a hunch, but I imagine if they have a large force on the ground, they’re protecting someone or something.” I turned back to Maggie and handed the uniform to her.

Clearly opposing the idea, but seeing no other way around it, she snatched it from my hands and marched upstairs.

Eran leaned toward me, while keeping his eyes on the stairs, to whisper, “Magdalene doesn’t like uniforms very much.”

I chuckled, and replied, “I got that impression. Hope you don’t have the same issue.”

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug and smirked. “I’ll go naked if it’ll do the job.” Ignoring the chuckles that followed, he headed upstairs with his uniform in hand.

“And the third?” Jocelyn pressed, lifting her eyebrows at me.

I took the remaining uniform and strode to her. Feeling victorious, her eyes lit up, but calmed when I didn’t release my grip on the clothes.

“I’m hesitant to allow this, Jocelyn. You entered the conflict last time when I told you not to, not without my signal. And that signal never came. Did it?

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“I’m serious, Jocelyn. I love you. The very core of me wants to keep you here. But you bring up a valid point. Your healing ability is needed on the field. And with the Dissidents rebelling there will be injuries. That said, you will remain behind with Theleo until we have secured the area and I personally tell you it is safe to enter. Let me repeat that…I personally will tell you when it is safe to enter.”

In a paramount gesture of acceptance, Jocelyn whispered, “Yes, Nobilis.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

And then her lips turned up in a sideways grin. “I will allow you this one wish, oh Great One.”

With that, she tore the clothes from my hands and waltzed upstairs.

Snickering broke out around the room, and when I faced them, they were cowering behind hands clapped over their mouths.

“Nice to see you all finding common ground,” I pointed out, which prompted several dirty looks across to the opposing family.

“Common ground?” said Charlotte sarcastically, always instigating. Although she still looked flushed from the stomach flu, it didn’t seem to impede her taste for conflict.

“What’s with your attitude, Charlotte,” Nolan demanded, his notoriously brute side showing.

My mother opened her mouth, and appeared interested in quelling the growing argument, but she never got a chance.

“What’s with your attitude?” Dillon countered. “You have no class, Nolan.”

“Class?” Nolan laughed. “Who needs class when they’re dealing with a Caldwell?”

From there, the small kitchen became a battleground. Dishes spun and shattered, fireballs singed the curtains, icicles slammed into several heads. Ezra and Rufus were on their feet, either protecting themselves from the damage or screaming to be heard. Felix had slipped from the room after the first assault.

“ENOUGH!” I shouted over the anarchy. “ENOUGH!” And when they still didn’t listen, I took hold of Charlotte’s arm, channeled her ability, and sent every one of them up against the wall. That quieted them down.

With their attention now on me, and my hand still on Charlotte while she remained pinned to the refrigerator, I carefully explained, “Your fighting is becoming a nuisance, and worse, a distraction. There are people, friends…family members, out there who need our help. Right now, our allies, people with less training than you, are defending themselves against Vires. And you’re here, bickering, as The Sevens stride into history as the rulers over our world, the innocent world beyond it, and every world that comes after ours has been obliterated and forgotten. We need to focus and rely on each others’ strengths. I have seen you cast the most amazing spells – but at each other. You need to ask yourselves who you should really be casting at. Focus. This is exactly what the Sevens want. To tear us apart from within. What are we really trying to do here? We all have incredible abilities – but imagine what we can do together.
Together
we have the power but only if we use it together. That is exactly what the Sevens fear the most – all of us uniting – an uprising, and for good reason. If we can come
together
we can be a great and powerful force. Understand, those of you pinned to the wall at this moment, that you are being neither great nor powerful. Because those two forms of leadership traits are hidden beneath layers of anger and criticism. But it is up to you to overcome it…because there is far more at stake than this feud, than your indifferences, or the preservation of my life.” I drew in a deep breath, letting this message sink in. “Now, because you have proven yourselves to be lacking restraint, I will release the Weatherfords first. And I warn you all, if you so much as give the opposing family a sideways glance, you will find yourself back where you are now. Only this time, I’ll leave you there…indefinitely.”

No one spoke as I slid them to the ground, not even when the back door was opened and they sifted through it.

Behind me, Jocelyn, Maggie, and Eran stood at the opening to the hallway leading into the house, watching them leave, leery about what might flare up again. But only my mother paused at the door.

“You’ve become stronger, Jameson,” she said.

I blinked in confusion and she explained, “Your ability to cast us against the wall was telling, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about your wisdom. You see with clear eyes, while ours are clouded with emotion.”

“It’s Jocelyn,” I replied instinctively, not sure how she’d accept that news. “The longer I’m with her, the stronger I am.”

She considered this for a moment and gave me a hesitant smile, before taking a speculative look at Jocelyn, and left. As she cleared the doorway, I was met with Charlotte’s grim face.

“She makes you strong, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Strong enough to defend yourself against her?”

I knew where she was headed with her question. “I’ll never retaliate against Jocelyn. You should know that by now.”

“But you could if you needed to?” she pressed. “Because you’re channeling her strength, her ability to heal, correct?”

She’s hinting at something
, I thought.

And that’s when it came to me.

Charlotte had cast against Jocelyn knowing that I would do everything in my power to ease her pain. I’d find some way to reduce it, and Charlotte knew eventually that solution would lead to channeling. And if I could absorb her pain, if I could absorb Charlotte’s ability to levitate, then I could absorb Jocelyn’s capacity for healing.

Charlotte, in her twisted way, had shown her wisdom.

Slowly, and in a barely audible whisper, I answered, “Yes, Charlotte, I can.”

With the hint of a smile and a reserved tip of her head, she said, “Good luck in China.”

As her feet swung off the ground and up behind her and she levitated into the darkness, I found myself torn. I was grateful for her guidance, and yet angry at her for using Jocelyn to steer me toward it.

“Ready?” Jocelyn asked.

Turning, I finally took in Estelle’s uniforms, and admitted to myself how startling the three of them looked. They were the faces of those who I trusted yet they wore the uniform of those who I’d unsympathetically kill on a second’s notice. Had I considered the implications then, I might have been able to avoid what happened later. As it was, I found it ironic that Jocelyn’s hand swept up and from it hung my Vire uniform. “I figured you’d need one too,” she said with a shrewd smile.

After changing, we headed for China. On the way there, I kept an eye out for yawns and eye rubs. Drowsiness led to lethargy, which led to errors, which ultimately led to death. Although I’d been trained to perform well when sleep deprived, I wasn’t sure the others could, so it was a relief when they showed no signs of fatigue. Still, to keep them alert, I filled them in on what I knew about Caligula.

“This one has the most military experience out of all The Sevens, and unlike most leaders he doesn’t hide behind his forces. Caligula loves the battle. Some say he thrives at the sight of blood. This is probably why he oversees executions at the Ministry. I’ve never seen or heard of him being sick, injured, or weakened in any way, so we can deduce he is extraordinarily resilient. There are stories about him, which Theleo can support, about him fending off Elementals, Levitators, and Channelers who have attacked him at the time of their executions. Not a single one was successful. If he has a vulnerable spot, no one knows it.”