After he left, I tried calling Steph again. We hadn’t been having much luck reaching each other. She was either off hunting ingredients for the Qeres or I was busy training. Tonight was no different, my phone going straight to her voicemail. I left a message telling her I would try and email, but we both knew that however we made contact, neither phone nor email was secure so she wouldn’t be able to tell me much.
From what Griffin had gleaned from Dapper, they’d already found nine of the ingredients they needed and Dapper had enlisted a few old friends of his family to help keep them hidden. We didn’t know exactly what that meant but he assured us they were all safe and together. The last three ingredients were proving more difficult to find – the original sources of one, seemingly extinct. If we had to, we would use an inferior mutation of the herb but Dapper still felt it was worth persevering and since we hadn’t got any further at our end, Griffin agreed. No one seemed to want to deal with the outstanding problem of the angelic thirteenth ingredient.
The odd text I had received from Steph mostly complained about her lack of ‘alone time’ with Sal, until, two days ago, a simple smiley-face message, which I presumed meant she’d finally found a way to rectify her problem.
I had a shower, washing off the blood from the evening’s session with Rainer. When I walked out of the tiny bathroom, wrapped in my towel, every muscle aching to the extreme, and considering giving myself a quick healing once-over, I found Zoe and Spence both sitting on her bed.
‘Hey,’ I said. Then I saw the clothes – not mine – laid out on my bed.
‘What’s going on?’
My confusion didn’t last long when I saw the smiles plastered on their faces.
I shook my head. ‘No.’
They kept smiling, sitting there in the kind of clothes that screamed: planning no good.
‘No!’ I reinforced. ‘I can barely stand up and Rainer will be back here banging on my door in,’ I looked at my watch, ‘six hours.’
‘Oh, come on, Eden. You used to be fun. We’ve barely seen you and some of your classmates are starting to talk …’ Spence said, trailing off.
‘Talk about what?’
‘That you think you’re too good for us. I mean, look at it from their point of view, you haven’t even been showing up to meals.’
I knew there was probably truth in what he was saying. I hadn’t been showing up for things because of my training but that didn’t mean people wouldn’t take it in another way. I didn’t want to be an outcast.
‘A few of them will be out tonight and it’ll give them something else to talk about over breakfast if you show.’ Spence’s eyes were alight. I knew he was baiting me, setting me up to give in.
I bit my lip.
‘Come on.’ Zoe chimed in. ‘I’ve even put out a hot outfit for you so you don’t have to think, and don’t pretend you can’t swing a little of your own power on yourself for some healing. We all know you can.’
I gave her a snarky look. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, I’m not allowed to leave the buildings.’
Spence rolled his eyes. ‘Technically, neither are we, but in case you’ve forgotten, we have particular talents when it comes to getting out of high-rises.’
At that, I couldn’t hold back the smile.
Fifteen minutes later, I was in Zoe’s favourite pair of black leather pants, high-heeled boots and a gold beaded halter-neck, which was crying out to be danced in.
Zoe yanked my hair up into a high ponytail while I smudged on some eyeliner and a layer of mascara.
Spence stuck his head back in the door. ‘Coast is clear. Mission Bridge is a go.’
Mission Bridge?
Zoe grabbed my hand and yanked me down the corridor.
It was getting late so not many people were walking the halls. We stayed close, travelling through three buildings and over two skywalks, Spence hiding us under glamour whenever we were at risk of being seen. Finally, on the lowest of the Academy levels in Building D, Spence and Zoe came to a service lift.
‘Zoe, you’re look-out,’ Spence said.
She nodded and kept a watch on the hallway while Spence started to pry open the doors.
‘Are we going to die trying to get out of here?’ I asked.
‘Don’t think so,’ he said, as he pulled them apart. ‘Zoe, let’s go,’ he whisper-yelled.
She ran straight for the lift and … jumped.
‘Holy hell!’ I yelped as I looked over the edge to see she had grabbed onto a ladder on the far side of the shaft.
Spence chuckled. ‘After you, sunshine.’
My shock quickly morphed into a smile. This was going to be fun.
Following Zoe I leaped into the lift shaft, landing easily on the ladder and following her down. Spence was close behind.
When we reached the second floor, Zoe stopped climbing down and started heaving open the doors there. When we had clambered out, she led us straight through a fire door onto a balcony.
‘Why are we going this way? Why not just use the front doors?’
‘Motion detectors,’ Spence replied. ‘They’ll still pick us up, even when I’m using a glamour.’
‘How often do you guys do this?’
Spence shrugged. ‘The service elevator is like … Like a rite of passage. We’ve both spent almost a year here confined to the buildings – use your imagination.’