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

Unholy unleashed a creature called a Destroyer. It was officially known as a Blight.”

“What is a Blight?” I asked, not wanting to know the answer. “Why haven’t I heard about this before now?”

“Blights can only walk this plane when a Nightmare Lord calls them forth,” Calisto said. “The presence of one in the Park means Chimera has grown stronger.”

“Stronger?” I asked, concerned. “How much stronger?”

“Strong enough to destroy us if we don’t reinforce these wards with your power,” Calisto said. “Would you prefer I explain Blights to you and forfeit our lives or fix these wards? I can’t do both right now.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Pira’s workaround was clever, but foolish. Had she not stopped when she did, she’d be dead right now,” Calisto said her voice grim. “I’ll need to have some words with Rafael about his suicide missions. I need you to stand over here.” She pointed to a set of symbols located near the center of the circle. “Now, please.”

I moved over to where she indicated.

“This doesn’t seem like much help,” I said, standing over the symbols. “I’m just supposed to stand here? This feels like target practice, where I’m the target.”

“Not exactly,” Calisto said, manipulating the symbols and replacing some of the wards with new ones that gave off white light. I found myself standing in the center of a ward circle glowing white in the center of the Park. “Extend your arms, please. This is going to be painful. I’m sorry.”

“Painful?” I asked, looking around at the dormant wards on the ground beneath me. “What are you talking about?”

Calisto slammed a hand down on the wards and caused the circle to explode in white energy. The energy started at the outer edge of the circle, then raced inward to where I stood.

“The Demon Anchors should keep you safe,” Calisto said, forming her sword again. “Get ready.”

“What do you mean, should keep me safe?” I asked as the energy reached me and enveloped me in power and pain. “What…am I…getting ready for? I mean, besides this agony?”

The stone wall Calisto erected to keep the Unholy back shattered into dust. A lone figure approached us, dusting off the sleeves of his jacket. Behind him, I could just barely make out the horde of Unholy through the haze of pain.

They were waiting.

“We need to get ready for that.”

“You are the energy source I have been sensing,” the man said as he stepped close, yet remaining outside the ward circle. “It has been some time since I destroyed an Unholy of your level.”

TWENTY-FOUR

“You were never one to do things the easy way,” Rafael said under his breath as he approached the hospital bed holding Gan. “Why should I expect this to be any different?”

Gan remained unresponsive.

The door opened slightly and Deborah stepped into the room. Rafael raised an eyebrow as the nurse approached.

“Did you forget something?” Rafael asked, removing his jacket. “Is there something I can help you with?”

Deborah focused on Gan.

“You’re going to try and bring him back, aren’t you?” she asked. “Don’t bother lying to me. I know I’m right.”

“What makes you say that?” Rafael said, rolling up his sleeves and loosening his tie as he, too, focused on the unconscious Gan. “I’m just here to visit my old friend.”

“I’ve tended to plenty of Hunters in my years,” Deb said. “Some of them made it, many of them didn’t. The Unholy are brutal in their fighting. The ones who made it were inked.”

“Most of the higher ranks, the ones who face the most dangerous of the Unholy, are inked,” Rafael said. “It’s another layer of protection. It doesn’t make them invincible, but it helps them survive the night.”

“None of them were inked like him,” Deb said, motioning to Gan with her chin. “His ink is different.”

“How so?” Rafael asked, wondering just how much Deborah knew. “What’s different about it?”

“I’ve only seen it twice before,” Deborah said. “Once was when I was still a trainee for the Order Medical Research Division, and the other time was when I ran into you a few minutes ago.”

Deborah pointed to Rafael’s neck, where the outline of a design could be seen.

“What are you saying?” Rafael asked.

“Well, like you, I make sure to be informed about the people I’m treating,” Deb said. “Especially for something like a mindswipe. There hasn’t been a recorded recall procedure in decades. Before that, you have to go back to the war.”

“I’m aware,” Rafael said. “This is a special case.”

“Then I noticed his ink,” Deborah said, pointing again to Gan’s neck. “The part that looks like yours.”

“Could be a coincidence,” Rafael said. “Plenty of people in the Order are inked, not just the Hunters.”

“Director,” Deb said, putting her hands on her waist, “I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night. You bear the same ink—similar designs with slight variations. You both belong to the Iron Sect.”

“The Iron Sect doesn’t exist,” Rafael said flatly. “Those were made-up stories from the war.”

“Not any more, it doesn’t,” Deb said, reaching over to pull one of Gan’s hands. “The training was deemed too extreme even for the Order, and the sect was disbanded.”

“Sounds like a great story.”

“You know, I thought it was strange we were performing a recall procedure on a John Doe,” Deb said, holding up Gan’s hands. “Judging from the calluses on your old friend’s hands, I would say he’s into bare-handed ditch digging. That would be an odd hobby for the leader of the Gray, wouldn’t you think?”

Rafael narrowed his eyes and gave Deborah a small smile.

“It strikes me,” Rafael started, “that underestimating you would be dangerous.”

“Happens all the time,” Deb said, waving his words away. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“Let’s entertain the theory that this is really the leader of the Gray, and that he was at one point a member of the now non-existent Iron Sect,” Rafael said. “Can I count on your discretion?”

Deborah gave Rafael a cold stare.

“I do not divulge the details of my patients