All That Lives Must Die

assure you. Just the odd trip to the icecream parlor. Perhaps the occasional man-to-man chat so he has a proper role model.”

They all gave Henry a look.

“Oh, very well,” Henry said with a shrug. “I’m sure there are others better suited to being a role model. My point is still valid.”

“I agree,” Lucia said. “We have already done some thinking along those lines. Henry is a suitable choice as emissary to young Eliot.”

Henry wasn’t sure where Lucia was going with this. Her agreeing with anything he said set off alarm bells.

“Additionally,” Lucia continued, “Fiona will need someone to shepherd her, and convince her it is in her best interest to align with the League.” She looked pointedly at Dallas. “Someone with a similar youthful exuberance. .”

Dallas had been pretending to ignore her, looking at the vista of San Francisco, but she turned and said, “Is that why I was ‘invited’ to this meeting?” She scoffed. “Leave me out of your scheming, Sister. I’m not the Council’s puppet. And I have no intention of candy-coating what it means to be Immortal-let alone a member of this League.”

“Very well,” Lucia replied. “No one is forcing you. We will find someone more willing.” She tapped one manicured nail to her lower lip. “I wonder if Ish is available.”

Dallas’s eyes widened at this, and her hands curled into fists. “That Xanax-popping harlot? You can’t be serious.”

“We do need someone,” Lucia told her. “And she is capable of having fun. . ”

Dallas stifled a squeak of rage.

Outside the sun grew brighter, and the intense light made the metal walls ping as they heated and expanded.

Henry took a step away from both women.

It had been a mistake to collect all three Fates in one location-explosive, primer, and detonator all in one neat package.

Dallas sighed, however, and hung her head. “Very well. I’ll do it.”

“Excellent,” Lucia purred. “Do I have a second to the motion for Henry to mentor Eliot, and Dallas to bring along Fiona?”

“I will second,” Gilbert said.

Lucia looked surprised that her recently estranged lover would so readily agree to her suggestion.

Henry worried that he had overplayed their hand. .

Lucia nonetheless continued: “Shall we put it to a vote?”

“Wait,” Kino said, his dark, ever-skeptical eyes taking them all in. “Only with honey will you bribe the children? There is a more potent method to convince them our ways are best. With fear.”

Aaron stood, color flushing his already ruddy cheeks.

Cornelius made little calming-down motions with his hands. “Let us hear what he has to say.”

Aaron nodded and sank back down.

Kino smiled. “Show them the benefit of the League, yes, I agree. But also show them the opposite side of the coin: the disadvantages of the other family.”

Audrey nodded, understanding. “You want to scare the hell out of them,” she said. “Literally. Perhaps. .” Her features hardened. “But only scare them, Kino.”

The two stared at each other a moment, and then Kino blinked and gave a tiny bow. “Of course.”

“And who better to do this,” Lucia asked, “but the Lord of the Dead and Guardian of the Gateway to Hell?”

A chill spread down Henry’s spine. Indeed, Lucia and Kino had schemes of their own hatching.

But there were worse alternatives to so influencing young Eliot and Fiona-ones no one here spoke of-yet. If the Infernals brought them over to their side. . the League had signed Warrants of Death for both children.

The bright sunlight faded. Iron gray clouds covered the sky.

This was a possibility Henry would do anything to avoid, or at least delay its inevitability for as long as he could.

8. TOUR

Fiona waited outside in the courtyard. She welcomed the sunlight on her skin after being cooped up for so long. The classroom in Bristlecone Hall had felt like a tomb.

Without crossing into its shade, she examined the tree in the yard. It was a bristlecone pine with a silver trunk and skeletal arms that only occasionally sprouted a pine needle. This species could live for thousands of years, like her family.

Was she Immortal as well? Fiona couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be 16 years old, let alone 116. . or 1,600.

The other freshman teams stood together in loose cliques across the courtyard: Green Dragon, Black Wolf, White Knight, Soaring Eagle, and others. They talked and stole glances at each other.

Sixteen teams. Eight students in each yielded a total of 128 in their freshman class… of which a quarter, thirty-two of them, would fail.

Fiona had a bad feeling about this. Why couldn’t school just be about reading and learning? Why was it so cutthroat?

She eyed that Jezebel girl, an Infernal-and so did almost every boy. They clustered around her, all smiling and flirting and wanting to know her better.

She did look a little like Julie Marks, but this girl was taller and older. Maybe Julie had had an older sister who’d crawled out of Hell.

And why was she getting all the attention? Because she was pretty. Beyond pretty, really: Jezebel had a mystical look, like she had just stepped out of a masterwork oil painting, luminous and perfect.

Fiona smoothed her skirt and jacket, thankful for the school uniforms. If she’d had to wear Cee’s homemade clothes, the social chasm between her and the rest of these girls would have been light-years wide.

That may have been the most unfair thing of all. Fiona was a goddess, for crying out loud, and yet somehow she still managed to look less than ordinary.

Eliot shuffled closer to her. “What kind of mascot is a scarab?” he asked.

She tore her gaze away from Jezebel. “The Egyptian pharaohs used scarabs as symbols of eternal life.”[9]

Fiona was about to engage Eliot in debate over hieroglyphics (her knowledge was rudimentary, but Eliot’s was nonexistent) when Robert Farmington emerged from the restrooms, cleaned up from the scuffle to get that last token.

She brightened as he walked toward her.

He looked like he owned the entire school. That was so Robert’s style.

But he also looked out of place in a Paxington school uniform-like someone dressed for Halloween. She half expected to see his motorcycle parked in the corridors.

Fiona didn’t have a clue what Robert was doing here, but she didn’t care.

She moved to meet him, and started to reach out and hug him, but that felt wrong in front of all these people. . and besides, Robert made no such move toward her, stopping a short distance away.

“You didn’t call after our vacation,” she whispered. “Was there trouble?”

Robert looked away. “Some,” he said. “After I got kicked out of the League, I had to lie low for a while. Mr. Mimes says I can’t go back to work for him. . so he got me in here. Kind of a going-away present.”

“You’re on your own?”

“Yeah,” Robert said. “I’ve always been on my own. It’s no big deal.”

Robert spotted Eliot and waved. His gaze then fell upon Jezebel and darkened.

Fiona felt something wrong-very wrong-between her and Robert. The week they’d spent on a tropical island this summer was a distant dream. She wanted to take his hand, give it a reassuring squeeze, but the air between