Page 54
Story: Seeing Red (The Codex #1)
~~ 6 months later ~~
There were things I should’ve said instead. Here lies Helena Kinsley, the girl who set off to find Death and the Devil—to kill the ghosts in the forests, only to become one herself.
This isn’t a funeral for me, but part of me did die in that forest. A worse part of me and whether or not the person I am now is better will be told by time.
I watch the scene in front of me through the glass, like an observer rather than a participant, silent and still as the crowd gathers around the casket and a charred body with my name on it is tucked inside. People I haven’t seen in years stand with their heads bowed, their voices a murmur against the cold wind.
Somewhere in that crowd, my mother weeps softly. A pang shoots through me, but I don’t let it show. I watch as they lower the casket, the earth swallowing another part of my life, and I press my fingers against my dad’s dog tags around my neck, feeling the weight of Arik’s ring looped beside them.
The last funeral I attended was my father’s. I’d worn these same dog tags then—a faux pair that Bane gave to me along with his crocodile tears and condolences. The real ones are heavier, dirty and charred, but they’re his. They’re all I have left of the people I love. My dad. Arik. Silas—a thin chain wrapped around my neck to keep me together.
I finally turn away from the funeral and head back to the van, forcing myself not to look back. Samara’s in the driver’s seat, focused on her screen, her fingers moving swiftly over the keyboard as she pulls up the encrypted data. She looks up when I slide into the passenger seat, her eyes locking on mine for a moment before turning back to her screen.
“Did you see it?” she murmurs.
I nod, the tags burning on my neck like a brand in my skin.
“It’s done.”
“Are you okay?”
Arik’s last words to me were that he loved me. And I didn’t say it back. I sprinted after him when he disappeared but it’s like he vanished in the woods—no footprints, no bodies, not even a voice in the wind…and that feeling that I’d always felt on the back of my neck was gone. He wasn’t watching me anymore.
I don’t even know if Bane was watching me. He wanted me because my dad worked for Acacia, because I was dangerous by association, but since I left Italy, I hadn’t heard a single whisper. No police came to arrest me, even as I bounced between hotels, stayed at the alarming amount of homes Samara owned throughout the world. I was afraid to go home.
This was all I could think of to keep my mom safe.
I don’t know if she’d ever forgive me, or if it was even necessary. I was a contract, not a threat, but even with a bounty on my head and being on the most wanted list in Italy, it wasn’t safe. If I’d been there, if I’d stayed in her life, the cycle would’ve continued.
So I let her weep for me. I watched her sob and cry and beg for death that her little girl was taken from her at 27 years old.
“It’s for the best,” I finally say. “I just didn’t think I’d ever get to see her cry at my own funeral.” I can feel Samara’s eyes following me but I don’t meet them, looking around the van like there was something among the tech I could understand. “Did you find him?”
It’s a stupid question. Arik won’t be found unless he wants to be, but it doesn’t stop me from asking anyway.
“Not since he reached Spain,” she tells me. “His phone is still off.”
“Can you bypass the encryption?”
Another stupid question.
“Not without having his phone on me.” She sighs, closing her laptop with a snap. “Arik doesn’t want to be found.”
I stare out the windshield, tracing the cracks in the road as if they might form answers. “Do you think he’s coming back to the States?”
She looks thoughtful, her gaze flickering as she considers me. “I don’t know. Arik has always been unpredictable. But if he’s in Spain… there might be a connection there.”
If I knew Arik at all, he’d travel on foot. He’d stick to what he knows, moving through the forests and deserted areas and feeding off of the land like a hunter. Six months of being alone, looking for someone that may not even be—
I can’t say it. It brings a sick feeling in my stomach, snaking up my middle and wrapping around my throat like a cord I just can’t cut. The thought alone is a poison in me. Saying it would be like death and I’m already fighting that thought when the tears well up in my eyes.
“What about Silas?” I ask, though I’m bracing myself for what I already know.
She glances down, her silence stretching long enough to confirm it. I swallow, the bitter taste of grief settling in my lungs that want to burst out in a sob.
“We’ll keep looking,” she says.
I nod, but that promise doesn’t hold the same weight it used to. Maybe I want it to be true. Silas would’ve found us by now. He would’ve found Arik. If he hadn’t…then that means he’s out there, with them .
Death would be a blessing compared to that.
It’s been hollow without either of them here. Too many nights, I’m woken up with the memories of Bane’s hands on me, dreams where I couldn’t stop him, and he made them watch. And the nightmare continues when I wake up alone, my heart pounding and nothing to reassure anything that Arik or Silas could still be alive.
I shift my attention back to Samara, shaking away my thoughts. “Did you get a connection between Evos and Acacia?”
She nods, her eyes steely with determination. “We found a linking HQ in Spain.”
I breathe in, steadying myself. Arik might’ve found them too. He wouldn’t need Samara to hack into their network. He’d force it out of someone and leave a trail of bodies to make his way up to Bane and Alastor.
If Arik is in Spain, I might find him there too.
It’s the last thread I need to create a surge in me. I may not find Arik in time before he moves on, but it’s a trail to follow, and little by little, Acacia is crumbling, whether they can see it or not.
I reach into the back, pulling out a small white mask. It’s simple—a hard plated mask intricately sculpted to my face and covered in white kevlar to protect my head. There’s only two holes for the eyes and around the mouth is an ‘X’ indented into the material—nothing left of my face for anyone to see, only the hunter that remains. A Hallow.
Samara dons hers too, the metals clicking into place as it seals around her head, and then her eyes light up green, illuminating just the faintest part of her irises behind the lights.
I glance at my reflection on the monitor. My eyes are white now, blending in perfectly with the whites of my eyes. It’s the last piece of me they can see. The only piece, but they’ll find the same thing I saw in Silas the day I met him—nothing.
Samara looks at me, her hands wrapped around her purple grenades. “Ready?”
I reach down, my fingers wrapping around my Hallow and underneath my mask, I smile.
“Ready.”
Table of Contents
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