Sepia Blue- Nameless: A Sepia Blue Novel- Book 4 Orlando Sanchez (good books for high schoolers txt) 📖

“You ask that like I have a choice,” Rafael said.

“We always have a choice,” Anna said. “It’s the outcome of our choices we must make peace with. Yes or no?”

“Yes,” Rafael said. “I will send details once I have more information.”

“That is acceptable,” Anna said. “Oh, and Director?”

“Yes?” Rafael said, wincing, knowing what was coming next.

“The next time you question my leadership of the Sisters, or my resolve to do whatever is necessary to secure their safety, I will personally make the last few hours of your life a monument to pain and agony.”

“I would expect no less from the leader of the Sisters,” Rafael said. “We will speak soon.”

Anna ended the call and Rafael let out a short sigh.

“That went better than I expected,” he said under his breath with a shudder. “Note to self: do not anger world-class assassins about their skills.”

Rafael traced another symbol and undid the area of silence around him, before heading to the procedure room where Gan was fighting for his sanity.

NINETEEN

“Wake up. We have guests,” Calisto said. “And they brought friends.”

“Guests?” I asked groggily. “What the hell happened?”

I held my hand up to my eye, but it wasn’t glowing.

“What are you doing?” Calisto asked. “Did you hear what I said?”

“What? Since when am I the welcoming committee?” I asked, confused. “No one even knows I’m here. Why would I be concerned about guests?”

“Wrong on several points,” Calisto said. “Your little exercise in stubbornness earlier probably alerted the entire Park to your presence. Considering this was your mother’s home and, by default, now yours, these are your guests— and you are the welcoming committee.”

“What?” I asked again, through the splitting headache that felt like a behemoth was using my head as a battering ram against a stone wall. “What are you talking about, my home? I thought this place belonged to the Order?”

“The Order?” Calisto asked. “You really think the Order would build a base of operations inside the Park? The place full of Unholy they helped trap inside?”

“When you put it that way, it sounds crazy,” I said. “Which only means my mother was out of her mind, putting a Hunter’s Keep in the middle of the Park.”

“Your mother, Emiko, was many things. Crazy wasn’t one of them,” Calisto told me. “The most obvious reason she located the Keep here was to find peace.”

“Peace? In the middle of the Park? I’m not seeing it.”

“Not yet you aren’t, but consider her situation,” Calisto replied, handing me a glass of liquid. “Why did she locate the Hunter’s Keep in the center of the Park, and not somewhere more strategic like its edge or one of its entrances?”

“If I had to guess as to the real reason, I would say it was the one place she could be where the Order would leave her alone,” I said. “At least temporarily.”

“Exactly. She acted as deterrent to the Unholy in the Park and the Order left her to her devices,” Calisto said. “It worked for all parties involved, until the Unholy tried to destroy the wards containing them within the Park.”

“The Jade Demon stopped them.”

“The Jade Demon sacrificed everything for her principles,” Calisto said. “For that, she was feared and cast out. Emiko didn’t care. She lived life on her terms and died the same way.”

“This smells like paint thinner mixed with alcohol,” I said, scrunching my face at the contents of the glass I was holding. It looked like blue milk and had the consistency of paste. It reminded me vaguely of milk of magnesia, except it smelled industrially horrific, like something used to dissolve rust or the iron itself. “What is this, Bantha milk?”

“I don’t know what Bantha milk is,” Calisto said. “Mercy made this medicinal drink to help you recover from the headache you must be feeling right about now. Drink it all—we need to get outside before they try to undo the wards around the Keep and kill themselves in the process.”

“That sounds like something we should prevent.”

“Astute of you,” Calisto said, eyeing me as I held the glass away from my face. “Are you going to drink that, or do I have to help you?”

“No help needed,” I said, holding my breath and drinking the cool blue liquid. It simultaneously destroyed all taste in my mouth, while filling my body with a sensation of calm and warmth. The headache subsided from pounding behemoth to mild irritant trying to gently squeeze my brain.

“Mmm…Whatever it is, tell Mercy it’s excellent,” I said with a grimace. “My brain doesn’t feel like it wants to explode out of my head right now. My mouth, however, may never recover.”

“You are a terrible liar,” Calisto answered. “You may not taste anything for a week, but Mercy’s drink does what it needs to do. Let’s go. Before blood is shed.”

“Whose blood?” I asked, following her up the stairs out of the lower level. “Do you know who or what is out there?”

“Yes and no,” Calisto said. “Whoever is out there is versed in wards. Enough to tamper with the circle protecting the Keep.”

“A Hunter, or one of the Unholy?”

“The Unholy would be destroyed if they attempted to cross the ward circle, much less tamper with the wards contained within,” Calisto said. “And I don’t know of any Hunter who possesses the level of knowledge required to alter this circle.”

“That doesn’t leave many options.”

“More than you would imagine.”

“Whoever it is came into the Park at night,” I said. “That means they don’t fear the Unholy. They also thought it was a great idea to mess with the wards, which means they—”

“It means they possess power,” Calisto finished. “The Unholy are attracted to power. It lures them like moths to flame and it also feeds them, augmenting their strength. Do you understand why this could be a bad thing?”

“Stronger Unholy sounds like a very bad thing,” I said. “So we have someone trying to do what—break in and power up the Unholy at