Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3)(39)
I peer around a few of the smaller womb combs up front and spot Rowan three rows down. I go to him. He’s pulled out one of the lattices so he can inspect the crop of tame Woven embryos that are growing inside the hexagonal cells. It looks like a sheet of honeycomb that he’s holding up to the light. A dark speck of life is nestled in the center of each cell. I have no idea how he can do that barehanded. It’s like he doesn’t even mind the freezing cold of it. Inside the cell, cupped right around the embryo, heat is maintained by the crucibles who tend them. The rest is kept several degrees below zero. Less infection that way, but torture to touch, or at least I think so. Rowan sees me and gives me that lazy smile of his.
“Good morning,” he says.
“Afternoon,” I correct, and then catch myself when I see his smile turn into a grin. “I know I was supposed to be here at nine,” I begin, already explaining myself. Why do I always feel like I have to explain myself to him?
“Don’t worry about it. Come and help,” he says. He’s understanding and forgiving as usual. I don’t know what’s more annoying. That he’s genuinely better at everything or that he’s so damn accepting of the fact that everyone else is so flawed . . .
Sorry, Tristan said, abruptly ending the memory. I didn’t mean to
go on like that. Sorry, Ro.
It’s okay, Rowan replied.
Lily could feel their friendship repairing. The frayed edges of where their personalities met up were weaving themselves back together as if neither of them could remember why they were fighting.
The sun had set and the lights from the city below were winking on, terrestrial echoes of the stars above. Such a pretty prison, she thought. Lily put down her teacup and went inside.
The cavern in the map definitely looks like the Stacks, only much larger, Lily said, trying to get back on subject. But why would Ivan give this to us? Rowan—you said you thought it was a map out of the city.
Yes. Rowan directed their attention to the far end of the cavern. There was a steady rise in the gradient and a small opening at the end. That could be a tunnel to the surface.
Maybe, Caleb said. But that brings up another question. Why would Ivan want to help us get out of Bower City?
Lily took a guess. Ivan thinks Grace is trying to trap Toshi. If I claim Toshi like she’s planned, he’ll get caught and go to jail. I think it’s because she wants to replace him with Rowan as Ivan’s second. Toshi is strong, but Rowan is still stronger.
He’s definitely trying to protect Toshi from something, Rowan said.
Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s you.
It was clear that between the two of those options, Rowan felt that she was the greater threat.
I’m not out to ruin anyone else’s life, Lily said, stung. She thought of Toshi’s parents—his father’s swollen fingers and the sound of his mother’s voice, sickly and weak in the next room. She let her coven view the memory with her. Toshi has family here, and they need him. I’ve decided that claiming him isn’t an option anymore, even if he is willing. She started looking through her things for something suitable to wear. There’s only one way to find out why Ivan really gave us the map. We follow it, and maybe get out of here tonight.
She let her coven go back and forth, arguing. There were a dozen reasons to wait and a dozen reasons to act immediately. None of those reasons mattered to Lily anymore. She just wanted out of Bower City.
Lily was dressed in a dark silk tunic, pants, and flat black shoes, and sitting patiently at the end of her bed with the lights off by the time they realized that she was going with or without them. She even had a bag of salt in one pocket and a small jar of the miracle soap in the other, just in case they actually made it out of the city and found themselves on the road back to Salem.
Okay. But we’re going in three small groups, not as one big herd, Rowan insisted.
Lily stood and went into the bathroom. She lit all the candles she could find there and began gathering their energy slowly so as not to disturb the Hive. She didn’t know if fueling her mechanics would be considered an act of aggression, and she wasn’t about to take any chances alerting them. Their best bet at avoiding the Hive was to act as calmly as they could. A witch wind whistled through the window and Lily slowed her harvest until the wind lowered to a soft moan.
Caleb took command as he’d done on the trail. Una and Tristan with Lily first, he said. I’ll go with Juliet second. Breakfast, you and Rowan last.
I’m going with Lily, Rowan insisted.
No you’re not, Caleb ordered. You go with Breakfast or you don’t go at all.
Lily could feel Rowan struggling with this and resisted the urge to support him. Let’s go, she said, ending the conversation. She changed the energy she’d gathered from the candle flames into force and flooded her coven’s willstones with power. She felt them all stretch and sigh as they soaked in her strength.
They waited for the sounds of the villa to die down, and then left their apartments in the groups and in the sequence that Caleb had designated. As Lily flowed through the darkness, Una and Tristan on either side sweeping her along with them, she connected her coven each to each, unifying them even though they were physically parted. Caleb’s caution, Tristan’s thrill, Una’s prowl and pounce, were all joined into one. Rowan’s unease at being away from Lily was like a twanging note in the song, out of tune with the rest.