“Seriously?” he asked.
“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”
He stared at the troll doll so long, I was beginning to wonder if he’d hit his head during the fight.
“Scarlett… I was wrong,” he said haltingly. “I believed—”
“I know what you believed,” I declared. He’d thought Greer and the others had sinister motives, but in the end, we were all on the same wavelength. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We’re all on the same side now. Or is it ‘the same page of the Codex’?”
Wilder frowned. “You told them?”
“Greer and I had a little chat and worked a few things out. After my display in the library, I kind of had to, but it didn’t seem to matter as much as I thought it would. Aldrich already seemed to know about my suspected contact with Arondight, and Brax… Well, Brax is just grumpy.” I smiled, knowing I had Wilder genuinely lost for words for the first time since I’d met him. And it only took me stepping up for it to happen. “We’ve got a lot to do,” I added. “Training, Balan hunting, Arondight clues to decipher, and a family tree to put together. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Will you help me?”
He snorted. “Of course I will.”
“FOMO?” I titled my head to the side.
“FO-what?”
“Fear of missing out.” I laughed and shrugged. He was all anarchy and screw the establishment, but deep down, Wilder wanted to be part of it all. We had that in common. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
“What secret?” he asked with a scowl.
“Shh.” I waved him off. “It’s in the vault.”
We sat together for a while, the comings and goings of the infirmary bustling behind the curtain.
“Wilder?” I asked, breaking the silence. “What happened? After the Balan picked me up, it bore into my mind like a drill.” I winced at the memory. “The next thing I remember…”
“Aldrich,” Wilder replied. “He caused a diversion and I was able to attack.”
I nodded. They must’ve cut down the lesser demons, freed the others, then Wilder stabbed the Balan, breaking its hold on my mind. It also meant Aldrich was a total bad-arse by cutting down that Colossus solo. I still had to figure out what one was exactly, but it sounded horrifying.
“Wilder? What’s a Colossus?”
“A seven-foot-tall wall of muscle infused with electrified scrap metal, powered by a ball of Darkness woven by a powerful greater demon.”
“Oh… is that all?” I shivered and was suddenly glad I missed out on tangling with it in the back halls of the Sanctum. It also elevated Aldrich to god-like status, knowing he’d taken it down on his own.
“When… What did you see?” Wilder asked.
“I…” I shook my head and studied the hem of my jumper. “It, he, showed me the night my parents died. He had all the answers, Wilder. I could’ve…”
He frowned, then reached out and grasped my hand. His touch was almost alien, the gentle gesture uncharacteristic. Almost like that kiss…
“You turned him down,” Wilder stated.
“Let go of your past and embrace your future,” I whispered.
He stared at me, confusion clouding his eyes. I didn’t know how to explain it to him. When those words appeared in my mind, I wasn’t even sure they were my own, but without them, I would’ve submitted to the Balan and signed a deal damning everyone.
“Scarlett—”
“Thank you,” I whispered, “for saving me.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “Don’t mention it.” He grimaced as he stood, the gash in his side hindering his movements. “And if you think you’re going to get out of training just because I got skewered, you’ve got another thing coming.”
I laughed and shook my head, a little pang of unrequited something-or-other tugged on my heartstrings. Now I understood how Jackson felt and it sucked big time. Knowing how well things had gone between my best friend and I, I decided to let my burgeoning feelings for Wilder go. I didn’t know when our relationship had changed, but he meant a great deal to me. After all, he was my mentor.
“Scarlett—”
“It’s your turn to not mention it,” I interrupted. “I’ve got to focus on becoming the best Natural I can be. There’s a war going on, you know.”
Wilder smiled, but it never reached his eyes. “Tomorrow,” he said. “Today, we rest.”
“Sounds like a plan, Grumps.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“You call me Purples, it’s only fair you get an annoying nickname, too.”
“You could’ve thought of something better than Grumps.”
I grinned. “I did, but it’s far too rude to say out loud.”
22 The Bit at The End
Scuffing my toe through the rubble on the roof, I uncovered the corner of my copy of the Codex.
Above, a crane was lifting a new glass panel onto the reconstructed library dome, the crew of workmen shouting instructions at one another. The low drone of the crane’s mechanism vibrated through the air as I bent over to pick up the book.
It was strange how rebuilding took an age, but destruction only took a few seconds. I don’t know why humans are always so fixated on destroying one another when it took this much bother to repair the aftermath—bother and cold, hard cash. The Naturals must be loaded to bankroll these kinds of repairs.
Dusting off the leather cover, I held onto the Codex and glanced at the view beyond the rooftop. London stretched ever outward, a heaving beast full of life and progress. Cranes littered the riverside, building apartment blocks and commercial structures, and in the distance, the glittering skyscrapers of the financial district reached towards the sky, intermingling with older, more ancient parts of the urban sprawl.
I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the city. A familiar sensation wrapped itself around me and I turned. The Codex.
It was the same tug I’d felt the day of the attack when I’d stood before Greer
