words, but his mouth opened and closed as he talked to the little girl, then she went limp and slumped against him.
Shrugging Izzy’s arms aside, I swiped at the tears and focused on the conversation between Daryl and Remy.
“…wanted to know what’s going on, why everyone’s so scared,” Daryl said. “Cardinal Seth and the Council talked about where to hide us until the hunters were defeated. They wanted to take us to the Academy in South America or Europe. Someone asked about Coronis Isle.”
“And?” Remy asked when Daryl paused.
“Cardinal Seth said there was nothing left after you destroyed it and sealed the portal. We all heard them.” He turned his head as though to glance at Angelia. She and Bran now sat and faced each other. Whatever he was telling her seemed to be working.
“Angelia thinks you are a bunch of liars and killers,” Daryl added in a whisper, adding to my guilt. “She’s the one who suggested we follow Kieran and see if he could lead us to you. She wanted to hear the truth from you. Tonight, we got lucky.”
It didn’t matter that Coronis and her followers had been evil or that, for centuries, the Cardinals had tried to find the portal to the island with little success. No one wanted to tell Daryl his parents were killed because they were evil. Worse, strong psi readings ebbed and flowed from the cave, indicating he and Angelia hadn’t come alone. I tried to get an exact reading to see how many Specials were in the caves but couldn’t.
I felt a tug and peered at the road in the direction we’d come from. We were not alone. My eyes met Remy’s.
He turned to look, just as a car zipped past without stopping, and its headlights lit another car parked on the shoulder of the road.
Remy nodded toward the road.
“Where are you going?” Izzy asked him softly.
“To take a leak.”
She made a face. “You are so gross.”
Sykes just laughed and disappeared in the shadows. He had explored this valley and the surrounding canyons, and he could sneak up on whoever was spying on us before they knew he was there, unless they were Psi.
“Look, Daryl,” Remy said, placing the palms of his hands on his knees and bending until he was eye-level with Daryl, even though the gesture was wasted on the blind boy. “What happened on Coronis Isle couldn’t be helped. Coronis was evil and had to be stopped. I’m sorry your parents died too.”
“Goddess, Remy,” Izzy swore. “What happened to being subtle?”
“That was subtle,” he retorted. “I focused only on Coronis.”
“It’s okay, Cardinal Isadora,” Daryl said, sounding mature for his age. He was fourteen and the oldest of the Specials in our sector. “My father and mother were Primes, but because I was blind and not very big, they thought I was not perfect. They dumped me at the institute with the other Specials when I was four. Five was the minimum age for admission. They didn’t care that I wasn’t being trained, that I was often used as a guinea pig and sent to fetch things for the other Specials. They were ashamed of me, but Coronis had a need for children like me. My powerful hearing abilities meant I would one day be a power source for her, to be drained when she needed an energy boost. You could say my life sucked, but now…”
Suddenly, his bravado disappeared. His chin trembled and his eyes filled with tears. He shoved his hands in his pockets, mentally controlling himself.
“My new mom and dad are nice,” he continued. “I don’t want anything to happen to them. I don’t want to leave them behind, especially my mom. She doesn’t have powers like the others.” He looked toward the cave and frowned. “We don’t want to go to the Academy in South America or Europe. We want to stay here with you.”
There was no room in the valley for the Specials. Not in the Academy or our homes. We also had no Civilians to keep an eye on them while we trained.
“You must protect us,” Daryl added. “You owe us.”
“You are blackmailing us?” Remy asked, not masking his outrage.
Daryl grinned. “Yes. You protect us, or else we’ll go all over your valley and use our powers. We’ll do things, good and bad, to make sure the people see us doing them.”
A giggle drew my attention to Kylie. I’d completely forgotten her presence.
“It’s not funny,” Remy reprimanded her, then glared at Daryl. “There’s nowhere for you to stay in the valley and you cannot threaten us.”
“Then we won’t tell you where Cardinal Kim is or who took her,” Angelia said from behind me.
We whipped around to face Angelia. Bran’s hand tightened on her shoulder, and from the way she tried to shrug it off, she didn’t like it.
“You are holding her hostage?” Remy asked in an outraged voice.
Angelia made a disgusted face as though Remy’s suggestion was beyond dumb. “N-no.”
“Tell them,” Bran ordered.
She shot him a mean look, then mumbled, “Demons took her.”
“Which ones?” Izzy asked at the same time as Remy. “Were they hiding in a cloud mass?”
“Was there lightning?” I added.
“There were no clouds. Is that what everyone is scared of? Lazari?”
“Back to the question, Angelia,” Izzy said impatiently. “What kind of demons?”
“They were a mixture of Nosferatu, Werenephils, and some nature-benders,” Angelia spat out. “Kieran and his friends fought them two nights ago and he said they were from the Order of Hermonites.”
We sighed with relief. Demons we could deal with. The Order had asked to meet with me, but Grampa had said no. Could this be their attempt to get our attention? “Where did they take her?” I asked, my glance moving from Angelia to Daryl then back to Angelia.
She ignored my question, even refused to look at me. I sighed. The Brotherhood was doing what they were supposed to do—raise the Specials neutrally—teaching them about our history without labeling Guardians as good and demons as bad. If we had had time, I would have broken the rules and explained to her about Coronis and why we sent her to Tartarus.
“Lil asked you a question,” Bran reminded Angelia.
“I’m never talking to her. Ever,” she added, shooting me a mean look.
“Fine. Pretend she’s not here,” Izzy snapped through gritted teeth. “Where did they take Kim?”
Angelia sneered. “I don’t like you either.”
“You know what? Right now the feeling is mutual, brat,” Izzy retorted.
“Behave,” Bran cautioned, though I wasn’t sure whether he was talking to Izzy or Angelia. “Tell us everything.”
She jerked her shoulder from his grip and moved to Daryl’s side. “We followed Kieran and his friends when they left the compound tonight, because we knew he was meeting Cardinal Kim. We materialized at the same time she did. Then the demons attacked. They didn’t give the Cardinal time to use her powers before they grabbed her and teleported. Kieran and his friends followed. I followed them, while Daryl used the Cardinal’s telegate to find your enclave.”
“He followed a telegate backward?” Izzy asked.
“He’s the best tracker we have,” Angelia bragged. Trackers could detect trace amounts of Psi energies and follow them. If Kim followed protocol, she made several stops before her last teleport, which meant Daryl was really good. “I followed the demons to their den, then met Daryl at home,” Angelia continued. “You let us stay and we’ll tell you who took the Cardinal and where she is being kept.”
I glanced at the others. Their expressions were grim. We all knew why Kim hadn’t fought back. Using her powers might have alerted the archangels.
Bran’s gaze swung between Daryl and Angelia. “You two are going home or I’ll tell Darius what you’ve been up to. Lil can retrieve the images of the demon’s den from your heads.”
