Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1) (23 page)

Graves crossed his arms and nodded, but said nothing.

“It’s too late for him to retire with dignity, but that doesn’t mean he has to live out his days earthbound in total disgrace, either,” Nana said. “Give him some horrible work to do, it’s no more than he deserves. Clip his wings, even, so you know he can’t fly far. But don’t take them.”

The board left the room to discuss Nana’s plea, but they weren’t gone for long. Thea wasn’t surprised when Langdon stood and said, “I’m sorry, Nana. You know we trust your judgment. But we feel it would set a dangerous precedent to take your advice in this instance. Our decision stands.”

The dewinging was to take place in the bit of open field behind the Colony Center. Anyone who wanted to see that justice was done was welcome to come and watch.

The anticipation in the dining hall at dinner that night was palpable enough to put Thea off her food. Cora gave her brother an exasperated look as Nero speared one of Thea’s untouched pork chops with three claws and plopped it onto his own plate.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Cora asked.

Thea shrugged. “It’s just kind of savage, don’t you think? How excited people are to watch it? They’re talking about bringing picnic breakfasts!”

Cora raised an eyebrow at Thea. “Don’t tell me you feel sorry for him. After everything he did to you?”

“No, not exactly.” Thea dragged her fork through her applesauce. “But compassion is a virtue, isn’t it?”

“Compassion, yes,” Nero agreed. “Indifference, no. And that’s what it would be, if we stood by and let anyone get away with a thing like this.”

Thea nodded only to end the conversation. She knew they wouldn’t understand. Maybe a part of her would always be human. Maybe they’d always see that part as weak.

When she left the dining hall, it was with no conscious idea of visiting Graves. But she found herself outside his residence, asking his guards if she could see him. Even as she walked inside, she wasn’t sure why she’d come.

But he didn’t ask. He greeted her with an offer of a chair and a glass of wine, as if she was an ordinary visitor and these were ordinary circumstances. Thea accepted the first, but not the second.

“Are you sure? They let me have a really excellent bottle. Actually, they let me have two. I guess the health of my liver isn’t a priority.”

“It might not be too late, you know,” Thea said. “If you help them find Megaira, they might reconsider.”

Graves laughed. “And why would I do that?”

“To save your wings, obviously.”

“Do you really imagine I’m going to let them take my wings?”

Thea blinked at him. “And how do you intend to stop them? Are you actually admitting to an escape plan?”

“Megaira won’t strand me here. We’re family.”

“You and Alecto are family. Didn’t stop you from framing her.”

Graves’s pleasant mask dropped, and he looked only tired. “Go home, Thea,” he said. “You have no business here. I’m sure you’ve come to lecture me, or perhaps to gloat. But allow me to practice the virtue of honesty: I’m not interested in what you have to say.”

Thea sighed. “Remember when you told me you weren’t the bearded mentor in my story?”

He laughed again. “So now you want to be the bearded mentor in mine?”

Thea stood and shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to see if I could help you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Maybe because I want to hang on to my compassion. Maybe because I don’t think a soft heart always has to automatically mean weakness.” She went to the door, but hesitated with her hand on the knob and said, “Maybe just because I’m a better person than you.”

Graves said nothing as she walked out. To the guards outside Thea said, “He seems to think Megaira is going to come and break him out. Might want to keep an eye.”

The next morning, it seemed most of the colony had crowded into the field. The lucky few whose residences had views of the spot where Graves would be dewinged all seemed to be having parties. Shouts, laughter, and music came out of the open windows, mingling with the sound of the crowd below. It occurred to Thea that this was probably exactly what weekends had looked like when this was really a campus. They were acting like kids.

Cora and Nero were right: she had no reason to feel sorry for Graves. But it still made her sick.

Maybe in some weird way I’ve come full circle
, she thought.
Maybe I’ve gotten strong enough not to fear a little weakness.

Thea stood with Cora, Elon, and Nero at the edge of the crowd as the sun came up and Graves was led on foot to the spot where a fury dressed like a medieval executioner, right down to the black hood, waited.

Thea saw Graves’s face as he went by. It was gray, and had lost all the confidence of the night before. He looked like he hardly understood where he was.

He must really have believed that Megaira would come for him. But she’d betrayed him, just as Nana had betrayed him, in a way. Just as both Graves and Megaira had betrayed Alecto. For people who prized virtue, there sure seemed to be a lack of loyalty in that family.

The crowd hushed and closed in, many of them flying up to perch in trees or on top of buildings for a better look. Several people got in front of Thea and blocked her view.

She stayed where she was.

But there was nothing blocking her ears as Graves’s hideous screams burst over the campus, like thunder announcing a storm.

Thea got the job she wanted, as an Investigator for HRI. Life settled into a normal routine of background checks, research, and surveillance as she made recommendations on cases, and put together files for the Inflictors. It was mostly quiet work, and after the excitement of the past few months, that was just fine with Thea.

She heard Graves was working for Facilities as a gardener, wearing cheap, soil-stained clothes and bulky gloves every day. But she didn’t see him.

The day after Thanksgiving, Thea flew out to the center of the pond, and tossed her bells in.

When she got back to her residence, she closed the door and stood with her back against it, waiting. But the panic never came.

Maybe it just hadn’t sunk in yet.
The bells are gone
, she warned herself.
For good. You can’t get them back. You have nothing to hide behind
.

Who needs to hide? I’m a fucking purple dragon.

She had a lovely Christmas at Aunt Bridget’s farm. Cora, Elon, and Nero came with her, and the house seemed full of laughter for the first time since Uncle Gary died. Thea and Flannery were even civil with one another, for the most part.

Aunt Bridget commented on the latter, while she and Thea were in the kitchen washing up.

“Aunt Bridget,” answered Thea, “we never really got to talk. About what happened to Flannery.” She cleared her throat. “How I hurt her.”

Bridget waved a soapy hand, sending a spray of drops across the counter. “And I hope we never will. It’s never pleasant to take sides between my daughters.”

Thea ducked her head, scrubbing an imaginary spill on the counter, so Bridget wouldn’t see her eyes filling with tears. Even if it was Christmas, it wouldn’t do to get too sappy. She was a fury now, after all.

As if reading her thoughts, Aunt Bridget said, “The change suits you.”

“Yeah,” Thea said lightly. “I always did look good in purple.”

“It suits you outside
and
in. Did I notice you’re not limping anymore?”

“As a matter of fact, you did. The head physician gave me some tea once, but I didn’t trust him at the time so I never drank it. I found it a couple weeks ago, and figured since he wasn’t one of the crowd who wanted to forcefully experiment on me and then kill me, I might as well try it.” Thea shrugged. “You know, I’ll admit that when I started I was kind of hoping the transformation would turn me into some kind of superhero, make all my physical problems ago away. And I am stronger, and I can move pretty much silently.”

“And fly,” Aunt Bridget added.

“And fly,” Thea agreed. “But I guess it doesn’t rework your skeleton along with your blood. This is the next best thing, though. If I drink it every day, the soreness and the stiffness are hardly noticeable at all.”

When they rejoined the others in the living room, Flannery was sitting close beside Nero, whispering something to him. Much to Thea’s horror, they had seemed to hit it off.

Thea crouched beside Cora, who was sitting on the other side of the room, and said in a low voice, “You don’t think…” She nodded at the couch.

Cora snickered. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Maybe a fling, if it even gets that far—”

“—who doesn’t have a human fling somewhere in his past?” Elon interjected, then coughed and turned away when Cora glared at him.

“You definitely don’t have to worry that it would lead to anything,” Cora went on. “It happens occasionally, humans marrying into the colony, but to be honest with you, it’s considered kind of low class. Definitely beneath the head of RDM.”

Thea laughed at that. Nero definitely walked with a swagger since his promotion.

The Monday after New Year’s, Alecto called Thea into her office.

“I’m suspending you from your normal duties,” she said.

“What did I do now?” Thea squared her shoulders, ready for a fight, but Alecto waved her off.

“Calm down, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m having you head up an investigative team. You can pick two or three others to help you.”

“To do what?” Thea asked.

Alecto’s jaw tightened. “To find my sister.”

There had been no sign of Megaira, and no word on where she might be. Thea knew Alecto wanted to find her, for business reasons as well as personal. Graves had said Megaira had a backup of the superhex data, and nobody wanted that out there.

“I thought you’ve had people looking for her all along,” Thea said.

“I have. Security’s been looking into it. Technically it’s their jurisdiction, since she’s a fugitive from the colony. But to be honest with you, we haven’t had anyone leave like this in at least a generation, if not more. They’re not really equipped to handle it. I want real investigators.”

“Then wouldn’t it be better to get someone with more experience? It might make things awkward, putting me in charge of a thing like this when I’m the newest one there.”

“Yeah, well, sorry about that, but you’ll just have to toughen up and deal with it.”

Thea bristled. “Why? What aren’t you telling me?”

Alecto moved behind her desk. “There have been some incidents. Megaira has been in contact with some Hexing House employees. Cora is trying to track down those communications, and she’ll work with you on this, but in the meanwhile, I’m not sure…” She coughed, as if the words were sticking in her throat. “That is, I need…”

She took what looked like a business card out of her top drawer.

“I trust you,” Alecto said finally, as she handed Thea the card.

Fury Unlimited
, it read.
Purveyors of Vengeance and Destruction
.

“Vengeance that isn’t righteous, and destruction in place of justice?” Thea looked at Alecto. “What is this? Is she…”

“Flip it over,” Alecto said.

Thea did, and saw two words in the center, in bold black type:

Now recruiting!

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Rising Fury
. I hope you enjoyed it!

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