“Never you mind, Henry. They’ll be back. Just going for a short walk,” said Lake.
“Yes. Walk. I like walking. I want to go too.” Chae Rin rose out of her chair like a ghost, but the hairdresser pushed her back down again.
I shut the door behind me, the commotion muffled behind wood. Belle and I donned our shades as we entered the elevator. I had my hood up covering my hair, pulling the strings so it covered a good portion of my face. Belle was less obvious, letting her uncombed hair loose as if she looked somehow less glamorous and recognizable in a pair of jeans and a gray sweatshirt.
“This will be your first time seeing your uncle in a while, yes?” she said as she pressed the fourth-floor button. We’d have to go down from the twentieth.
“Yeah.”
It was the first time he would see me as Maia Finley, the fire Effigy. He’d learned about it on the news with everyone else because I couldn’t muster up enough courage to tell him before I was thrown into battle. I should have faced him. But I was a coward then.
And now.
I looked up at Belle, who leaned against the elevator wall, her arms folded as she waited.
“Maia.” Belle’s quizzical eyes narrowed as she noticed the slight trembling of my hands, even when I clasped them together and buried them behind my back. “What’s going on?”
A few days ago, when I was at the hospital, watching Rhys, I’d noticed certain sights that were now etched into my memory. Like the sliver of light escaping through the curtains kissing his face. The quiet innocence softening his features, as if sleep had mercifully taken from them all the guilt and grief. He’d rested as if he were finally at peace, the peace he’d begged Natalya to give him. Natalya, whom he’d betrayed.
Both mother and son.
“Naomi Prince, Rhys’s mother, is a member of the Council.”
At this, Belle’s eyebrows rose. “What?”
“Not only that, but she asked me to meet her alone in Madrid in four days, which was three days ago, so, like, tomorrow. At sundown. Natalya’s old apartment. I wasn’t sure if I should tell you guys because she asked me to come alone.”
Belle pulled off her shades, and I wished she hadn’t. She could never hide the vulnerability in her eyes when it came to her mentor. “Why there? What does she want to tell you?”
“The truth. About Natalya’s death.”
The elevator’s gears shifted in the walls behind us. A silent shadow passed over Belle’s face, though she made no change of expression. “Why would she know?”
My lips felt heavy as I parted them to speak, but before I could, the elevator door opened at the fourth floor. The bellboy looked impatient as he waited for us to scurry out. Dipping our heads low, we left.
“Room four thirty-two,” Belle said when we stopped at the door. The moment stretched out, long and painful, as she knocked. What was I going to say to my uncle? What could I—
The door opened. I didn’t need to see more than a few strands of his limp brown hair before I slammed the door the rest of the way open and jumped on him. With my arms wrapped around his scrawny neck, I was bawling before his back hit the ground.
“Maia.” My uncle’s voice. My family. My blood.
He was laughing. Teary-eyed, I lifted my head off his chest just to make sure of it. His youthful face flowered into a grin too childish for his thirty years.
“It’s only been two months.” He showed all his teeth as he laughed, sweetly, happily, because he was just as ecstatic to see me. It was just the two of us, after all, since the day his dead older brother’s only surviving daughter had arrived at his New York apartment looking for a place to sleep.
My body shook as we both sat up, and a fresh wave of tears spilled out as both his hands crushed my cheeks together. I could feel Belle awkwardly maneuvering around us, trying to shut the door. “Sorry,” I said, and moved. We weren’t exactly being stealthy.
Uncle Nathan let go of me. “After the hotel was attacked in New York—”
“I know, I know. I wanted to call you, but—”
“Yeah, the Sect. Don’t worry, I’m up to date. Well, on most of it. I’ve read enough headlines to fill in the rest.”
We stared at each other, and that’s when I noticed what I didn’t before: the weight he’d lost. He’d already been a thin guy, but though his face had kept most of its vibrancy, it’d slimmed down too much for me to ignore, his skin matte and dry. And the circles under his eyes . . .
“You haven’t been sleeping.” Just like after Dad died.
Uncle Nathan’s hands stayed around my face, but his grip had slacked to the point where I could only feel the rough touch of his fingers. “I’m so sorry” was all he said.
It was his turn. The tears began to leak out one by one before he swiped his face quickly. “Maia, I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you from this.”
A thousand words passed between us in silence. His hands fell onto his lap as we considered which to speak out loud.
“Hey!” I tapped his shoulder. “Look what I can do!”
I sat back, sliding from him a little in case something went wrong. Then I snapped my fingers. The tiniest flame erupted at the tip of my thumb, flickering gently in the air.
Uncle Nathan laughed in amazement. “Look at you! You’re a little lighter!”
“There’s other stuff too!” I stood up excitedly, but Belle gripped my shoulder before I could get too carried away.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” she said. “Mr. Finley, my name is—”
“Belle Rousseau. Of course I know.” He jumped to his feet to shake her hand, a little too fast like he always did when he was nervous. “It’s an honor to meet you. Wow, Maia, you’ve really upgraded your list of friends.”
“Yeah, from zero to a positive whole number.”
Belle seemed a little taken aback and—maybe? Was it my imagination?—shy. Shy at the word “friend.” Her cheeks were a little redder, but it might have been a trick of the light.
“We’ve asked you here for a specific purpose,” she said.
“Yeah, the agent of one of the other Effigies—Lake? He called me and said you guys would explain. I don’t know, I could barely understand what he was saying—he just kind of barked stuff at me and hung up.”
Grabbing his hand, I helped him up. “I’ll fill in everything now.”
It took some time to put everything out there. Saul being at large, he knew about. But he didn’t know about the mysterious soldier with the mark at the back of his neck. Jessie, who could control the dead with her thoughts. The mind control. The flash drive. When I told him about that, Belle handed it to him.
“Are you okay?” Urgently, he pulled me by the arm and swept back my hair to check my neck. “It’s still red. God. Maia, if I’d known you were going through all this . . .”