Page 40 of Angel Lost (Fates Academy #3)
Chapter Forty: Lorelei
I walk smack into the back of the kid we rescued. Ahead, Kai blocks the corridor. He tugs at his hair, shifting from foot to foot in agitation. He swears under his breath, muttering incoherent half sentences. He’s radiating pure, unadulterated rage. I squeeze up next to him, peering around his shoulder.
“Reye!” I elbow past him and bolt for the window. “That’s her, Kai, that’s my friend. Reye. We found her.”
“That’s Regina, my fucking sister.”
I stare at him, then at Reye. There is something, around the eyes…I didn’t see it before.
Kai pounds on the glass, shaking the whole metal door in its frame.
“Easy, Kai. You said we can’t interrupt. We only got the kid out because his session was done. Reye’s—I mean Regina’s—it’s still going.”
He turns to me, his eyes wild, and grabs me by the robe, lifting me up until my toes dangle off the ground. “Davina lied. She promised me. She promised Regina would be safe if I served her, if I took the bond.” With each word he gives me a little shake. Then he roars, dropping me and falling to his knees in the next second, pressing his head to the floor.
I stumble to my feet. “Kai, that can’t be your sister. She’s the Angel King’s bride-to-be…that would make her his niece.”
Kai’s fists bunch. “Never happening. The bastard would do it though, he would. He’d marry his own fucking sister if she were a first aether. He’d do anything for power. ”
Alarm bells blare, and the lights in the corridor flash red.
“Move, Kai!” I yell, trying to pull him up.
“I’m not leaving,” he screams, shoving me off him. “You’re just saving your own ass. That’s my sister!”
Something inside me snaps, and I smack him in the chest. “When it was Chano’s sister you said we had to leave. And you were right.” He scowls. “We need to go, now. We can’t get them out. Not now. We don’t have the time to wait—we’d be unplugging them, risking their lives. That’s what you told me. We need help.”
“You’re saving your own skin,” he repeats, less certainly.
I grind my teeth. “Trust me, Kai. I wanted to investigate the shit going on here when you were ready to ignore it. And I am not leaving you here alone. Either we both go now, or we stay.”
I slip my hand into his, willing him to leave. He stares down at it, gaze moving uncertainly to my face. Footsteps pound on the floor above us, shouting echoing down through the ducts, the crashing sounding closer and closer.
Finally, Kai starts moving.
I swivel in my chair. Waiting. Drumming my fingers on the desk. Kai puts the final touches to the tattoo, and suddenly there are two versions of Kai. It’s the only way. We need to get to the portal in his stepmom’s office. Providing the receptionist is at least a little distracted, we should be able to march not-Kai straight out of here at my side. Kai will redo the illusion on us both. I’ll walk out as a professor accompanying not-Kai, then he’ll follow. We can’t risk us all going together, getting caught.
“You promise me you’ll come after?” I hold out my pinkie and he peers at it in bemusement. “Pinkie promise,” I prompt him .
Kai grabs my wrist. In one practiced movement he slashes the palm of my hand with his knife, and I yelp in surprise. Seconds later he gouges his own hand and clasps them together, blood dripping onto my dorm room floor.
“Promise,” he drawls, winking at me as the magic swirls around our hands, binding him.
Snatching my hand back, I scowl.
He’s more unstable with every day that passes.
Getting back to the dorm goes smoothly. Except I can’t find Chano. He’s not answering his phone, and my messages are unread. Surely they’re not ahead of us? Haven’t found out it was me rescuing the Maverik kid, and kidnapped Chano as revenge? No. I swallow my panic. We didn’t take that long. I force my way through the ley lines to the kitchens, the other two following behind. If anyone will know where Chano is, the hada will.
I spot the tiny hada from the strawberry garden. Hands on hips, she shakes a fist at me, and I have to guess at what she’s saying.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been in the garden yet,” I say, holding my hands up. “I’ve been busy!”
She leans in, her face so close I can feel her tiny breaths on my nose.
“Okay, look, when I do the work I’m due you, I’ll bring Kai too.”
Kai clicks his tongue in annoyance, then snaps his fingers. My disguise melts. Suddenly the hada beams and flutters off, glancing over her shoulder, making sure I’m following.
Shit. She thought I was an angel professor from Gifted. Of course she did. I didn’t need to bargain. I just needed Kai to take the illusion off. She had no idea what I was talking about, who I was.
My heart sinks the closer we get to the gardens. I didn’t mean we’d help right now. I start to protest as we step into the walled garden. The sharp wind dies away, and in the far corner I spot Chano’s hulking form. He’s bent over, pulling leeks out of the ground, mud smeared across his face, whistling .
My mouth drops open. The tiny hada flutters to my face and mischievously pokes a finger into my gaping mouth. I jerk back, and she flies off cackling to herself.
Chano the gardener. Who knew?
He stands, waving at us. He’s more relaxed than I’ve seen him in months, and I’m about to change all that.
He strides over, and I study the ground. He’s going to hate me.
“Good news or bad news first?” I ask, forcing a smile.
Chano stabs his gardening fork into the ground and looks carefully between the two versions of Kai. His nose wrinkles and he leans closer, sniffing. Panicked, I push the Maverik teen back.
Chano frowns. “Good news, chica. We can face the bad together.”
“We…we found one of them. One of the Maverik runaways.”
Kai mutters an incantation, and his final illusion drops away. With a groan, Chano engulfs the boy in his arms. The teen allows Chano to hug him, but no emotion passes over his face. When Chano pushes away, the boy just stands, arms limp at his side.
“Josh? What…? How…?”
“There’s more, technically good news…” I pause, playing with the hilt of my knife. “We know where Lottie and the rest are. And Kai’s sister too.”
Chano pulls his gardening gloves off and flings them onto the ground. “Let’s go.”
It takes a tense moment to persuade him to wait, to listen to the rest.
“If you’d just let me come to the aether academy with you,” he says. “I’d have sensed she was there. This is your fault!”
There’s a cold fury in his eyes. It’s not more than I deserve.
Kai leans up into Chano’s much bigger frame, grabs his earlobe, and twists. Chano yelps as Kai drags his head down to our level.
“First, you wouldn’t have sensed shit. Those rooms are sealed. And second, Lorelei wasn’t allowed to take you, bonehead.” Kai gives a final wrench before letting go. “This is all my stepmom. Don’t you dare put this on Lorelei.”
I give him a watery smile, laying a hand on his sleeve. “He’s partly right, Kai. If I’d gone looking sooner, been more insistent about it…If I’d listened to you about Davina…”
Chano rubs his ear, his lip curling in Kai’s direction. “Watch your step, fae.”
I square my shoulders. “Stop it. The pair of you. We need everyone’s help to pull this off. To get them all back.”
Chano slowly picks up his abandoned gloves from the ground, dusting them off, stuffing them into his back pocket. He moves to collect his gardening tools. “If you help rescue them, Lorelei, there’s no way Davina will let you graduate from the Gifted Academy, you know that, right?”
I shrug. “I probably won’t graduate from Fates either. Davina said if I got kicked out of there then she’d make sure I was thrown out of Fates too.”
Chano stabs the ground with his fork. “Then you can’t do it.”
Kai cackles. “Least of our concerns, kids.” He pats the insignia on my robe. “If caught, we could be imprisoned for acts against the crown. Or killed. By my charming uncle.” His face breaks into the waxy snarl I hate.
“Enough.” I smack them both on the chest. “We are getting those kids out. And we are not getting caught.”
Chano peers down into my face for a very long time, then bends over, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Thank you, chica.”