GET THE MESSAGE
FRIDAY MORNING, FOUR THIRTY A.M.
Slade drove us back to the parish, slower this time, though I could feel him itching to take the car at top speed again. When Gabriel got there, Sirhan’s pack, looking groggy and ill from coming to from the knockout gas, were waiting for us in the parking lot.
“The Death Howl,” Jarem said to Gabriel. He had an accent that made it sound as if he’d grown up somewhere in Africa. “We heard the howling and carried the cry. What became of Sirhan?”
“It is finished,” Gabriel said. “He was cured.”
The others bowed their heads in reverence.
“His body is in the car. We should take him and the two dead guards into the woods and give them the send-off fitting of warriors.”
Gabriel had explained to me on the way back that meant building a pyre and burning their remains.
They’d disintegrate completely in the flames.
A few of the Elders gathered together and left with Gabriel to take care of the dead. They had just pulled away when two cars came into the parking lot. April’s red hatchback and Talbot’s blue truck.
Lisa and April got out of the red truck. Talbot followed a few seconds later.
“We heard the howling,” Lisa said as they met us on the parish lawn where we stood.
“So did I,” Talbot said. “What happened?”
Daniel told them about the attack on the parish and what happened to Sirhan. Lisa wiped tears from her face. Talbot’s green eyes grew stormy with what I presumed was anger as he listened to the details.
“Where’s Jude?” April asked, her eyes flitting to the faces of Sirhan’s men, who milled about in the parking lot, still groggy from the gas. “Did he go with the Elders or something?”
I hesitated, not sure what to say. “No,” I finally said. “He asked to sleep at the parish, but we haven’t seen him since the attack. I don’t know if he ran away, or if the Shadow Kings took him prisoner.” It may even be possible he’s the one who brought them here.
April covered her mouth; she started to sink to the ground, but Talbot caught her up in his arms. She rocked a bit, clutching her hands close to her chest. “Tuesday is his birthday,” she said. “I thought … finally—” Her voice broke off with a high-pitched yelp.
“We’ll figure out what happened,” I said.
“We need to be open to the possibility that Jude was the one who orchestrated this attack,” Daniel said.
“Do you really think that’s true?” I looked down at my hands. I know I’d thought the same thing just now, but I just couldn’t accept it.
“Think about it, Grace. The door of his cage was ripped open from the inside. I could tell by the way the hinges were bent. The Shadow Kings knew exactly where everyone in the building would be. They had a plan of attack before they even got here. How would they know unless they had an inside man?”
“You’re saying that Jude broke out of his cage and then let the SKs in?” April asked. “I just can’t believe it.”
“He asked to stay here last night, didn’t he, Grace?” Daniel asked. “When he could have stayed in a comfortable bed at home?”
I nodded.
“And we don’t know where he was every minute tonight before you locked him up again, do we?”
I shook my head.
Talbot nodded. “He could have sent the SKs a message to meet him here at a designated time,” he said. “Told them where to find Sirhan and the others. Told them about our plan to try to postpone the ceremony past the eclipse.”
“No, I don’t believe it,” I said. “He wanted to change. He wanted to be better.” My encounter with Jude—our reconciliation—had seemed so genuine, I couldn’t let myself believe that he’d betrayed us. “Maybe that Marrock guy is the one who—”
“I believed Jude, too,” Daniel said. “I really did.”
“Wait, isn’t that your brother?” Lisa asked, pointing at someone who came stumbling into the parking lot only a few yards away.