“For what?”
“Saying those things to Father. It means a lot to me, Myla. I suppose in some ways, I'm very thrax traditional. No one questions the King.”
“Well, you've got me to bring a little innovation into your life.”
He chuckles softly. “So, what's your plan?”
“Who says I have a plan?”
“I do. Back in the kitchen, we were discussing the situation with Adair. Your mother asked you if anyone could think of other options. You said you couldn't think of one. You threw in the towel, just like that. I don't believe it for a second. You have another idea, only you don't think your parents will like it.”
For the first time in what feels like forever, I get all warm and fuzzy inside. Lincoln knows me too well, and that's a wonderful thing. “Did you take a Myla 101 Class or something? Because I don't think I'm that easy to read.”
“I study up in my spare time.” He purses his lips. “So, what's this plan that your parents won't like?”
“You might not like it, either.”
“Try me.”
“I don't trust Adair as the Great Scala. Not even to move a single soul. And I don't believe she she'll stick to some plan of compliance. The igni chose me.
Scala powers are my responsibility, and I'm going to see it through. I have to get my igni back, no matter what. Even if it costs me my life.”
“Go on.”
“Now that Lucifer's Orb is safely out of Purgatory, almost everyone thinks that Adair should do at least one iconigration. My parents. Your parents. All of Purgatory. There isn't a lot in my corner right now.”
“Except me.” He rubs his thumb along the back of my hand.
“That, and the fact that I'm here. Don't you see?”
“Not exactly.”
“If Adair could move souls like she says, then why am I standing here? I don't buy that baloney about respecting some kind of offer from her father. She hates me. Plus, it's not like igni have a limited radius or something, like Adair's ability to possess demons and thrax. I zapped demons to Hell from halfway across Purgatory. I know Adair could do the same to me right now, even from Antrum. So, why am I here, holding your hand, still alive?”
Lincoln nods slowly. “Good point.”
“There's more, too. I think Adair possessed the Durus. Now, imagine you've got a badass Durus under your control. You can make it do anything. But what's the first thing Adair forces it to do? Ask me to move the demon's soul to Hell.”
“That is rather odd.”
“And later, she sneaks up on me at the warehouse. She could take my igni or could grab the Orb. But what does she do? Dare me to try sending to her Hell. It all adds up to one thing.”
A slow smile rounds Lincoln's mouth. “Adair doesn't know how to use your powers.”
“Bingo. Hey, it took me forever to move my first soul. And I'd seen the Old Scala do a ton of iconigrations.”
“I remember. You struggled for a while.”
“Right. Adair's never seen igni in action. That's why she's keeps asking me for a demonstration.”
“So, what are you thinking?”
“I bluff it out. Lie my ass off to Adair. Tell her I'll give her the inside scoop on how to move souls in exchange for a guarantee that she'll send mine to Heaven. After that, I meet up with her one-to-one for the trade.”
Lincoln lifts his brows with interest. “And then, what?”
A grim chill crawls up my arms and legs. “Here's where things get ugly. Adair has to agree to give me my igni back. If she doesn't,” I inhale a rattling breath. “Then, I'll have to kill her. It's the only way I can be sure they'll return to me.”
“And you're not sure if you can kill her.”
“Oh, I'll do it if I have to. It's just that I've only ever destroyed evil souls and demons.” A bitter taste enters the back of my throat. Even thinking about this subject is disgusting. “Taking a mortal life is different, that's all.”
“I know.” Lincoln's eyes take on a steely look.
“Have you ever killed another mortal?”
“Yes. I've had warriors get possessed on demon patrol.” A pained look crosses his face. “It's never easy.” He shakes his head, as if dismissing a memory from his mind. “Still, Adair's committed more than a dozen acts of treason. Any one of them could be punishable by death. You'd be saving the executioner some effort.”
I laugh, but there's no humor in it. “Glad to help.”
“And you don't want to consult with your parents on this?”
“No way. They won't want me risking my life when Adair says she'll play nicely with others.” I take a deep breath. Here comes the big reveal. “This is the thing. I know we had until tomorrow morning to say our goodbyes. But if my plan's going to work, I need to leave tonight.” My voice breaks as I say these last two words. “I'm sorry.”
Lincoln stops, his mismatched eyes searching my face. This time, his unreadable face truly deserves the name. I have no idea what he's thinking.
“Is something wrong?” I ask quickly. “Don't bother trying to talk me out of this. My mind's made up.”
“No, it's not that. Not at all. I'm going with you.”
My brows lift with surprise. “I can't ask you to do that.”
“You're not. And it's not a request. It's a statement of fact. I am going with you.” He takes both my hands in his. “I don't want to be King without you as my Queen. The chances you'll win against Adair by yourself are slim. If this is going to work, you need some back-up.”
My pulse kicks faster. With a warrior like Lincoln along, my chances would get a shit-ton better.
“And you're absolutely sure about this?”
He looks at me out of his right eye. “Keep asking me that and I'm liable to get insulted.”
I can't help but smile. I'm so used to fighting in the Arena solo. No coach. No back-up. No friendly faces cheering from the stands. Having Lincoln in my life makes me realize how alone I once was. A happy, summer-warm feeling spreads through my heart. “Okay, you're coming along.”
He winks. “How very big of you.”
“Also, there may be a way I can protect you from her. You know, so she doesn't turn you all demon-eyed. It's a lot more bluffing and lies, but there's a chance she'll buy it.”
“What can I say? I love this plan.”
“You know we'll have to hide this from your parents, too?”
“Clearly.”
“So, how do we sneak into Antrum? It's always locked down super-tight. Right now, your parents are probably keeping an extra-close eye on who comes and goes.”
Lincoln rubs his chin as he walks along. “Let me guess. You don't want to ask Walker.”
“He's used his back-doors too much already. And he's needed here, in Purgatory. You know, if the plan goes wrong.”
And we end up dead.
“I may have an option there. You once mentioned an old inactivated Pulpitum in Purgatory. Since Acca has control over all the transfer stations, we could enter Antrum that way. My parents don't monitor it, but they do keep tabs on it at Transfer Central. And since the Pulpitum are under Acca's control, Adair should find out about our request right away. It could give us a way to contact her as well. Let her know we want to talk.” His mouth rounds into winning smile. “When do we leave?”
“Right now. Adair could figure out how to use my powers at any time.”
“Works for me. We're off.”
Lincoln and I step towards Pulpitum X, ready for anything. He wears black body armor; I'm in my Scala robes. We both carry our baculum.
Pulpitum X is a decommissioned transfer station in Lower Purgatory. No one was using the place, so we shut it down a century ago. I doubt anyone's entered it in fifty years. Even so, Lincoln says it can be reactivated for emergency traffic. I suppose the situation with Adair more than counts as an emergency.
Once inside the Pulpitum, it looks like all the other transfer stations, a dark and empty cylinder. Only here, there are no guards, and a light coating of dead leaves and garbage covers the floor. If I didn't know for a fact this place could work, I'd think it was busted.
Lincoln speaks in a whisper. “Ready?”
“As I'll ever be.”
I link my fingers with Lincoln's. Both our hands tremble slightly, which I find oddly comforting. We both know this plan is a series of educated-but-risky guesses.
Our first big guess is coming up, right now.
Lincoln's father admitted that Acca had taken over Transfer Central, the headquarters of all platform requests and routing. With any luck, Acca and Adair will intercept our message before anyone reports our request to Lincoln's parents. If Connor and Octavia realize that Lincoln is in Antrum, they'll bundle him off to the Earl of Acca in a heartbeat. Maybe less. We need to sneak in without them knowing.
“Activating emergency station. Lincoln Vidar Osric Aquilus.” A grid of white lasers shoot across the room, doing a quick body scan.
The same smooth female voice echoes through the station. “Identity confirmed.” Angelfire lights up the bowl-like sconces that encircle the room. Brightness reflects off metal disc in the center of the floor.
A long pause follows. Lincoln and I share a nervous glance. Will our plan get stopped before it even begins?
The woman's voice speaks again. “What's your destination?”
“The Great Scala and I wish to talk to Lady Adair, wherever she is. Alone. There must be no records of our visit. No alerts to anyone but Adair. We want this done quietly.”
“One moment, please.” Another pause follows as someone goes to check with Lady Adair. “Prince Lincoln is approved for transfer.”
A familiar voice crackles on the line. “Tell him that I'm glad that he's come to his senses, at last.”
No question who that is. Adair.
The Transfer Agent speaks again. “I'm instructed to congratulate you on coming to your senses.”
I exhale a breath I didn't know I was holding. The Transfer Station has Adair on the line, alone. That means she's in Antrum. Whew. Even better, she's running her own show, separately from her father. I straighten my shoulders and get ready for the next phase of our operation.
Here it comes. Guess number two. The crux of my plan. My tail taps nervously on my thigh.
I stroll around the Pulpitum, careful to keep my voice casual and confident. “King Connor told me that Lady Adair can move souls. And sure, igni will appear pretty easily. You can even get them to visit Heaven and Hell on their own.” So far, all of this is true. “But you can't move a soul unless you have every last one of them.”
Bombs away. That was a nasty, mega lie. Adair has plenty of igni, only I'm gambling she doesn't know how to use them.
Another long pause follows. The wind moans through the entry slit of the Pulpitum. My heart beats so hard, I can hear the whoosh of my pulse. Lincoln and I stand motionless.
Some garbled chatter sounds on the line. Adair's talking again, but I can't understand her words.
The female Transfer Agent speaks once more. “What would be the purpose of your visit?”
Woo-freaking-hoo. Relief and excitement course through me. Adair's buying into my lie. She really believes that she needs all of my igni. And asking for the purpose of my visit? That means she wants to know what I'm willing to trade for them. Even though I realize Adair's listening in, I keep up the pretense that I can't hear her. Who knows? If she doesn't know her voice is live, she might blab something useful in the background.
“Please tell Adair that we can play cat-and-mouse for years, with her trying to get the last of my powers. But there are millions of souls that need to be moved in the next twenty-four hours. I want to make a trade. I give
Adair my igni, and she promises to move all of Purgatory's spirits as their trial verdicts dictate, including me, when I'm ready.”
There's a burst of static on the line, followed by a quick answer from the Agent. “You are both accepted for transfer. Step onto the platform.”
My heart lightens. Adair gave in mighty quickly on that last request. She must be freaking out by now. Most likely, she's been trying to move souls for hours without any success. I'm sure she's gotten pretty sick of the screechy rock concert going on inside her head, too. My educated guesses are falling into place.
Here comes the last one.
I fold my arms over my chest. “Not so fast. I have a final condition. Adair cannot possess Lincoln during our visit. If I so much as see a flicker of demon-red in Lincoln's eyes, then I'm zapping the rest of my igni to Heaven, where she'll never get them back. My father will store them right beside Lucifer's Orb for all eternity, or at least until Adair is stone dead. Do we understand each other?”
What an outrageous pack of lies. I'm guessing that Adair doesn't know enough about igni to realize what a load of crap I just shoveled her way. I can send my igni on a visit to Heaven or Hell, sure. But no one can actually contain them other than the Scala.
The quiet gets downright annoying. “I said, do we have a deal?”
“Yes. Get on the platform.”
“Excellent.” I try my best to sound confident, but I won't really know if my bluff worked until we reach our destination. Once we hit the Antrum transfer station, Lincoln should be close enough to Adair that she would make him demon-eyed, if she chose.
A fresh round of adrenaline hits me. This is happening, really happening.
Lincoln and I cross the room, stand on the metallic disc, and rest our arms on each other's shoulders.
Time to go.
Like before, Lincoln states his command to the navigational system. “Launch transfer on my mark. 3, 2, 1.”
With a roar, the platform hurtles through the ceiling on a roller-coaster ride to the earth's surface. We speed through rock, water and soil, lurching as our platform avoids immoveable objects. A short time later, we emerge in another deserted Pulpitum. This one's in a blackened cave with a few measly grey ceiling-crystals to serve as light. The transfer station is half rubble, covered in lichen, and marked with signs saying âMercor Temple'.