Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1) (19 page)

“Not going to be able to do it without a few bumps,” Nana said with a shrug.

Alecto nodded. “Bumps are fine. It’s breaks we don’t want.”

“All right then. Best go soon,” said Nana. “But I have time to throw together some things for you.”

Nana gave them shoulder bags packed with shirts with wing slits (“You can get other clothes out there easy enough, since Thea’s got money.”) and, inexplicably, dinner rolls (“Even money can’t necessarily buy good bread.”), along with bottles of water. Then she took Alecto back into her bedroom and talked to her alone for a long time, while Thea stood by the same window Nana had stood at earlier, resting her hand on the same curtain. She breathed deeply and tried to see outside, to feel what might be out there.

The shadows Nana had seen around Thea felt thicker and closer than ever.

No shit. Don’t need to be psychic to see that.

As they were getting ready to leave, Nana took Thea by the elbow. “I wanted to tell you I tried that trick you taught me.”

“She taught you a trick?” Alecto looked equal parts offended and jealous. Thea couldn’t help but smile.

“I have a pearl necklace, from my wedding day,” Nana said. “I spilled a few drops of blood on it. It seems to work better with blood from the head or face, by the way.”

Thea nodded. “I’ve found that, too. What did you see?”

“I saw a house on fire. There were furies flying around it, fighting one another. I don’t think it’s happened yet.” Nana released Thea’s arm and stood up straighter. “You two see to it that it doesn’t.”

Thea nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

For once, Nana didn’t scold her for using the word
ma’am
. She just nodded and gestured for them to follow her outside.

All Thea hoped for as they stepped out into the woods was that Alecto would get her wish, and the fight wouldn’t get too ugly. She hadn’t dared to hope there would be no fight at all.

But the guards were gone. There was no sign of them anywhere.

“Do you think they just got tired and went home?” Thea asked. It seemed too good to be true, but she supposed it was possible. “They did seem kind of lazy.”

“And drunk,” Nana added.

But Alecto shook her head. “It’s too easy. I don’t like it.”

“Me neither,” said Thea. “But what else can we do but stick to the plan? I’m not going back to my residence.”

Alecto nodded. “If it’s a trap, I suppose we just fight our way out of it and strike out on our own.”

They both hugged Nana—Alecto for almost a full minute, by Thea’s count—then flew out over the fence and off the campus. They went on foot most of the way from there, deciding that the risk of being seen in flight was too great.

“It was too easy,” Alecto said again as they walked.

“I know, but I don’t know why they’d bother leading us into a trap when they already had us to begin with,” said Thea.

“Because it’s easier to kill us out here and claim we ran.”

Thea agreed that was a likely explanation, but it wasn’t the only one that came to mind. “Or maybe Megaira told you to run because that’s what they really want. She said she didn’t want to see you hurt. And Graves is your uncle. He can love you and want you out of his way at the same time. They don’t want you dead, they just want you gone.”

“Stop saying
they
like my sister is part of this.”

Thea sighed. “I think you’re going to have to face the fact that she might be.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“There are obvious connections. You said yourself, it would be hard for Graves to get the RDM resources he’d need for something like this. And Hester didn’t work for Graves, she worked for Megaira.”

“But she used to work for Graves. He was the head of RDM.”

“Alecto—”

“Enough! I am still your boss, and we are not having this discussion.”

Thea snorted at that. “Be sure to bring it up in my next review.”

As a result of walking, they were fifteen minutes late to the meeting spot. Spencer Road was seldom used, and even Route 47 didn’t see much traffic at night. There were no street lights. It was an ideal place for an ambush.

“Do you think we missed him?” Alecto asked. “Is he the type to get impatient?”

Thea shook her head. “No, but…” she trailed off, not knowing what she wanted to say. There wasn’t even any real tree cover. They were completely exposed and helpless.

No, not helpless. Apparently Alecto can throw stuff with her mind. And you’ve got claws, and wings. You aren’t helpless anymore.

Thea had been fortified by such internal pep talks several times over the past few weeks, but this time it did little to comfort her.

Five minutes later, a pair of headlights came up around a bend in the road. The driver turned them off almost immediately after making the turn, and the car slowed down to a crawl as it approached.

Thea stood still and waited. Beside her, she heard a soft swish as Alecto’s wings tensed, ready to snap open.

After seconds that stretched until they felt like hours, the vehicle got close enough to see that it was Pete’s beat-up SUV.

“It’s okay,” Thea said. “That’s him.”

She’d been betrayed by Flannery, and then Cora. She’d spent the last hour sick with suspicion and worry. But now that he was here, Thea found she just didn’t have the energy to doubt Pete, too. Despite having precious little to be happy about, she smiled as she climbed in.

“Thank you,” Thea said as Pete turned around to head back down Route 47. “How did you know?”

“Cora sent me an email.”

“When?”

“Was in my inbox when I got up this morning. She knew what was coming.” He nodded toward Alecto in the back seat. “Although to be honest she thought it was you, so I guess she didn’t have all the facts yet.”

“And she told you what, exactly?” Thea asked.

“That I should be on standby and she’d let me know if you needed me, but that I was not under any circumstances to contact her directly, even through our secure channels.” He chuckled. “Said she was going undercover.”

“That was fast thinking,” Alecto said.

“She’s a fast thinker,” said Thea.

“That she is,” agreed Pete. “She said she didn’t want to go down with you, but it wasn’t purely selfish. She thought the best way of getting to the bottom of this was for her and her brother and her boyfriend to turn coat and pretend to be on their side. Stay on the inside and all that.” He shrugged at Thea. “Pretty much what you did to find Flannery.”

“Well, that should make you feel better, Thea,” Alecto said. “Cora didn’t betray you after all.”

Thea shook her head, a little dazed. “Meaning I can trust the pitiless creature of vengeance I’ve known for a month, but not the cousin who’s been more like a sister my whole life.” She flinched when she saw Pete’s scowl. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me,” Pete said. “You saw her today?”

“Yes.”

“Notice she wasn’t wearing her ring?”

“You broke up with her?”

Pete let out an exasperated sound that was a distant cousin to a laugh. “Wouldn’t you?”

Thea sighed. “I think I kind of did.”

“Nah, you won’t get off that easy. Bridget will have you saying grace together over Thanksgiving dinner.”

“Don’t count on it.”

“Fascinating as all this family drama is, I think we need to start making some plans,” Alecto said. “We’ve saved our wings for the time being, but that doesn’t solve any of our real problems.”

“No,” Thea agreed. “I saw what this superhex can do. In the hands of the wrong people, it’ll wreck the whole damn planet. We can’t let them finish it.”

“Yes, saving the world is all well and good, as our livelihood depends on the humans,” Alecto said.

“As does mine,” Pete interjected.

“But I was thinking more of my colony,” Alecto went on. “Destroying the hex isn’t enough. We need proof that Graves is responsible if we’re going to set things back to rights at Hexing House.”

“Meaning what you’re really worried about is your position,” Thea said.

Pete took a turn too fast, Thea suspected on purpose to distract them. “Okay, I think we’re all tired,” he said. “How about you two get some sleep and save plans for the morning?”

They rode in silence the rest of the way to the hunting cabin. As he pulled up the driveway Pete said, “There’s a few groceries inside, and clean sheets. And a shotgun in the gun cabinet, should it be necessary. Thea, you know where that is.”

“You aren’t staying?” Thea asked.

Pete shook his head. “Only two bedrooms. I’ll come back tomorrow. You two play nice until then.”

Alecto muttered something unintelligible as she got out of the truck.

Thea paused with her hand on the door handle, watching Alecto stalk up the steps, and said, “Maybe you shouldn’t have reminded me where the gun is.”

Thea was sorry for several reasons that she didn’t have her bells with her, chief among them that she woke up just as the sun came up to find Alecto standing over her.

She stifled a scream as Alecto said, without preamble, “Will they think to look for you here? Is it in any records?”

Thea blinked at her, considered rolling over and going back to sleep, then sighed. “I hear the Investigators are pretty thorough, but still, I don’t see why it would be. Until the other day I hadn’t been here since I was a teenager, and Pete’s not family yet.” She sat up. “Unless Flannery tells them. Which is still possible. I have no idea whose side she was on yesterday.”

“I don’t think she was working for them,” Alecto said. “In fact, I think her exposing the lab is the whole reason Uncle Graves put this particular plan in motion.”

“He cooked the books to set you up. That took advanced planning.”

“A contingency, in case he needed it. But it would have been too risky unless his back was up against the wall, and he could have handled this if it was just you. Nobody would take your word against his without a lot of evidence.”

“Including you.”

“He’s my uncle.”

“Yeah, well, she’s my cousin, and I’m telling you she’s not that nice. Don’t trust her.”

“So will they come flying over here to look around, or not?”

Thea shrugged. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I want you to come outside with me. I don’t want to be rude and wreck your friend’s cabin.”

Half an hour later, dressed and washed but still not entirely awake, Thea met Alecto on the front porch and pushed a mug into her hand. “Can we at least have coffee?”

“I suppose.” Alecto looked her over with what appeared to be distaste. “Are you still weak from the lab?”

Ah, of course. Nothing grosses Alecto out like weakness
. “I’m getting better. What are we doing?”

“Nana thought you could learn telekinesis, so you’re going to learn some telekinesis.”

Thea shook her head. “Nana was wrong. I’m a little psychic. I’m not telekinetic.”

“You’re a lot psychic, and Nana is never wrong.”

“If I was a lot psychic, I’d be able to control it like she can. I can’t even get the flower friends to help me anymore.”

Alecto scowled. “The flower friends?” She held up a hand when Thea opened her mouth. “No, do not tell me. It’s bad enough that you’re looking for help from anyone, much less flower people. You can’t control it because you’re too timid to claim it.”

“You know what? That is enough. You’ve been treating me like I’m feeble since the day I met you.”

“You are feeble. And the day I met
you
, you tried to convince me that you had power, and that you could wake it up and learn to use it. But now that it’s come down to it, you’re trying to deny that same power. Because the fact is, you don’t really want it. You’re afraid of it.”

Thea crossed her arms. “I transformed from human to fury in a
month.
Even though half the colony wanted to tell me it was impossible. I found my cousin without anyone managing to stop me. And when I found her, I also found one hell of a scandal that was going on under
your nose
, run by
your family
, without you knowing a damn thing about it. So maybe you shouldn’t be throwing stones.”

Alecto took a step forward, claws out. Thea stood her ground, and protracted her own claws.

After a few seconds of staring each other down, Alecto turned toward the driveway and waved a hand. A cloud of gravel flew into the air and whirled around.

“As I was saying, Nana thinks you can learn this, so I intend to teach you.” Her voice was perfectly normal, which Thea supposed meant the fight was over.

Thea could have pushed it, demanded an apology, even. She was for sure owed one. But she knew she would never get it, and she was pretty sure Alecto had gotten the point. So she just stood alongside her, watching the stone cyclone for a few seconds before she asked, “Why?”

“Comes in handy in a fight,” Alecto said.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t show me. Never know when I might use it against you.”

Alecto smiled at that, and the stones fell.

“Try it,” she said.

“How?”

“Just make them do what you want them to do.”

Thea laughed. “This is your idea of teaching?”

Alecto sighed. “Do you see things that haven’t happened yet? When you have your visions?”

“I don’t think so, only things that have happened or are happening.”

Alecto nodded. “Well, if you’re seeing things that are happening as you see them, we can work with that. The only difference here is that you’re driving it instead of witnessing it. Force yourself to see the stones moving, project that energy at them, the same way you move a hex. And they’ll do what you see. This only works with things that haven’t got a will of their own, by the way, so if you’re already entertaining ideas of making me punch myself in the face, you can let that go.”

That advice was at least a little better than
just make them do it
, but Thea still hadn’t moved so much as a pebble an hour later, when they stopped at the sound of gravel crunching under wheels.

Pete had said he would be there sometime that morning. Thea squinted up the driveway. It was definitely an SUV, but was it Pete’s?

It wasn’t.

Flannery parked and got out of her truck with a box of donuts.

“Figured you would be here,” Flannery said. “Again.”

Thea tensed. “Flannery, we’ve got enough drama right now.”

“I didn’t come here to cause trouble.” She walked past both furies and up the porch steps. As she opened the door she said, “I hope you guys made coffee, I didn’t bring any.”

Thea and Alecto followed Flannery into the kitchen, where Thea poured herself a second cup of coffee without offering Flannery any.

“Why are you here?” Thea asked.

“I came to tell you something,” said Flannery. “Or a few things.”

“I imagine there’s a lot you could tell us,” Alecto said.

Flannery got her own coffee, chose a donut from the box, and sat down. “They searched my mother’s house this morning.”

“Who did?” Alecto asked.

“Three furies. Two of them did most of the searching, while the third one ordered them around. Big guy, dark hair, three chins.”

“Gordon,” said Alecto. “High priority if he went personally.”

Flannery looked up at Thea. “Aren’t you going to sit down?”

Thea kept standing, arms crossed. 

“Now who’s being the drama queen?” Flannery rolled her eyes. “At least take a donut, I got the Boston cream for you.” She turned back to Alecto. “Actually, I don’t know how high priority it was.”

“What do you mean?” Thea asked.

“They threatened us, and you,” Flannery said. “Very serious matter, dangerous people, if you’re harboring them we won’t hesitate to hex you. All that kind of thing.”

“Yeah? And did Aunt Bridget offer them tea?” Thea finally sat.

“Of course she did. They turned it down. Trying to look menacing, much like you were before you gave in and started eating that donut.”

“All sounds pretty high priority so far,” Alecto said.

“But that’s exactly it: it
sounded
high priority, but it was all talk,” said Flannery. “They acted tough, searched the fields and the house and went through the barn quick. But they didn’t spend very much time, and then that was it. I think they were trying to scare us more than anything. Maybe they figured you’d get the message from me.”

“In other words, they’re more interested in intimidating us than catching us.” Thea gave Alecto a pointed look. “They mostly want us to stay out of their way.”

“That was the impression I got,” Flannery said. “Although I don’t know why. Doesn’t seem like hurting humans is a problem for them as a general rule. To be honest, I’m surprised they didn’t hex me, at least. They must be pissed.”

“Maybe we’re shielded by association now.” Thea gestured at Alecto. “They only want her to give up the fight.” To Alecto she said, “Think how pissed Nana would be if they killed you.”

Alecto sighed and shook her head. “If you’re going to start talking about my sister again—”

“The point is,” Thea interrupted, “it’s a warning to go away quietly. We’re probably lucky we got one, and I don’t think they’ll give us another.”

“We’re obviously not going to go away, quietly or otherwise,” Alecto said.

“No,” agreed Flannery.

Thea stared at her.  “You do not seriously think you’re part of that
we
.”

Flannery rolled a scrap of donut into a ball, a gesture Thea recognized well.

“I didn’t know what they were making,” Flannery said after a few seconds. “I just thought it was hex research, the usual stuff you guys always do. I didn’t know it was a hex
bomb
.”

“Yeah? And just how hard did you look into that before you took their money?” Thea asked.

Flannery ignored that. “Now that I know, I don’t like that I was part of it. I can’t take it back, but maybe I can help undo it.”

“You can,” Alecto began, but Thea cut her off.

“She can’t! I’m not trusting her again.”

Alecto gave her an impatient look. “I could not be less interested in your hurt feelings, Thea. She has been inside that lab for weeks. She knows things. And frankly, I’d have her helping us one way or another, whether she wanted to or not. It just makes it easier that she’s volunteering.”

Thea started to say something, but Flannery spoke over her.

“Would you mind giving us a minute?” she asked Alecto.

“Think I’ll have a donut, after all.” Alecto took one and left the room.

“Okay, what do you need?” Flannery asked. “You want to tell me what an asshole I am? Give me a lecture? What?”

“I don’t need anything,” Thea said. “I’m not trying to punish you. I just can’t trust you. It’s that simple.”

She expected some self-pitying, dramatic response, but Flannery said, “Fair enough.”

“And yet you’re still here.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to get past it. Alecto was right. You guys can use me.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe you’ve had a change of heart and now you’re one hundred percent committed to saving the world?” Thea asked. “What happens if they offer you another paycheck?”

Flannery took a sip of coffee, Thea suspected mostly out of a desire to hide her face while she composed it. “I want to tell you something. About Pete.”

“I know he broke it off.”

“Of course you know. I bet he couldn’t wait to tell you he was on the market again.” There was the familiar, resentful Flannery.

“Oh, would you give it a rest!” Thea said. “Pete has been my friend almost my whole life. A better friend than you, a lot of the time. You can’t expect that to go away just because you’ve always been jealous and insecure and, frankly, whiny.”

She stood and snapped her wings open. “But look at me, Flannery. Take a good look at what I’ve become. This is forever. I’m pretty sure a human boyfriend is out of the question for me.” She couldn’t help but add, “And I’m damn sure I won’t miss having one.”

Flannery regarded her through narrowed eyes that looked more considering than angry. Finally she said, “It wasn’t a skiing accident, was it?” When Thea didn’t answer she shrugged. “What I wanted to tell you was, that I cried half the night after I gave Pete his ring back. I’m pretty sure I told my mother I wanted to die. But I didn’t die, and you know how I woke up?”

“How?” Thea asked.

“Relieved,” Flannery said. “Unburdened. I’ve spent half my life now desperately trying to hold on to him. I thought losing him was the worst thing I could imagine.”

“And yet you happily risked it for money.”

“Yeah, I guess I did. But my point is, now the worst has happened. And Thea, it is such a relief to give up the struggle. You have no idea.”

Thea frowned at her cousin. She didn’t need to try to sense her virtues to tell that there was a serenity in her face—the tiniest bit, maybe, but it was something—that had never been there before. She thought maybe Flannery was telling the truth. Or at least that she thought she was.